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Printed  by  William  K.  Boyle  &  Son. 

no  E.  Baltimorc'Streel. 

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€mmmQxniim. 


At  the  meeting  of  the  Alumni  Association,  held  in 
McDowell  Hall  on  the  afternoon  of  the  28th  of  June, 
1888, ,  the  matter  of  the  celebration  of  the  One  Hun- 
dredth Anniversary  of  the  opening  of  St.  John's  Col- 
lege, was  considered,  and  without  formal  action  being 
taken,  it  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, consisting  of  the  following  persons: 

J.  Shaaff   Stockett,   Ex-officio   Chairman, 

Hugh  Nelson, 

Henry  D.  Harlan, 

l.  dorsey  g  ass  aw  ay, 

Daniel  K.  Randall, 

J.  Harwood  Iglehart. 

In  discharge  of  the  duty  thus  assigned  them,  the 
Executive  Committee  prepared  a  memorial  to  the  Board 
of  Visitors  and  Governors  of  the  College,  asking  their 
aid  and  co-operation  ;  and  a  scheme  of  celebration  was 
formulated,  and  submitted  to  them  through  Principal 
Fell,  all  which,  together  with  a  communication  from 
himself  upon  the  same  subject,  were,  at  a  quarterly- 
meeting  of  the  Board,  held  on  the  2nd  of  January,  1889, 
referred  to  their  Executive  Committee.  In  pursuance 
of  this  action  a  joint  meeting  of  the  Executive  Com- 
1 


mittee  of  the  Visitors  and  Governors,  and  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  the  Alumni  Association,  was  held  on 
the  14th  of  January.  The  members  present  on  the  part 
of  the  former  were  : 

Frank.  H.  Stockett, 
Nicholas  Brewer, 
John  Wirt  Randall, 
William  G.  Ridout. 

The  members  present  on  the  part  of  the  latter  were  : 

J.  Shaaff  Stockett, 
Henry  D.  Harlan, 
Daniel  R.   Randall, 

The  joint  meeting  was  presided  over  by  Mr.  Frank.  H. 
Stockett,  President  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  and  Gover- 
nors. Mr.  Daniel  R.  Randall  was  appointed  Secretary. 
Principal  Fell  was  present  co-operating  with  the  Com- 
mittees. After  an  interchange  of  views  as  to  the  time 
most  suitable  for  holding  the  Celebration,  Wednesday, 
the  26th  of  June  was  selected;  and  a  sub-committee, 
composed  of  Principal  Fell,  Nicholas  Brewer,  Henry  D. 
Harlan,  and  J.  Shaaff  Stockett,  was  appointed,  with 
authority  to  prepare  a  Programme  of  Exercises  for  the 
Celebration,  to  be  submitted  at  a  subsequent  meeting  of 
the  joint  Committees.  This  meeting  took  place  on  the 
evening  of  the  11th  of  February.  The  members  present 
were  Nicholas  Brewer,  L.  Dorsey  Gassaway,  J.  Harwood 
Iglehart,  Daniel  R.  Randall,  J.  Wirt  Randall,  William 
G.  Ridout,  and  J.  Shaaff  Stockett,  together  with  Princi- 


pal  Fell.  In  the  absence  of  Mr.  Frank,  H.  Stockett  the 
meeting  was  presided  over  by  Mr.  J.  Shaaff  Stockett, 
President  of  the  Alumni  Association.  Principal  Fell,  as 
Chairman  of  the  sub-committee,  presented  a  Programme, 
which,  after  some  modification,  was  accepted;  but  the 
same  was  subsequently  further  modified.  On  motion  of 
Mr.  Gassaway,  the  following  persons,  to  constitute  the 
Committee  on  Invitations,  were  appointed  by  the  Chair : 

Thomas  Fell, 
L.  Dorset   Gassaway, 
Henry  D.  Harlan, 
J.  Wirt   Randall, 
William   G.  Ridout. 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Alumni  Association 
sent  the  following  circular  to  every  Alumnus  whose  ad- 
dress could  be  obtained: 

Annapolis,  Md.,  ApRiii  15th,  1889. 

Dear  Sib: 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  our  efforts  last  year,  as 
evidenced  by  the  pleasant  Ke-union  and  Banquet,  we  again  address 
you  in  behalf  of  the  Alumni  Association  of  St.  John's  College. 

This  being  the  Centennial  year  of  our  Alma  Mater,  it  has 
been  determined  to  hold  a  Ke-union  of  the  Alumni  worthy  of  such 
an  event  in  her  history,  and  we  earnestly  request  your  active  co- 
operation and  assistance. 

A  week  has  been  set  apart  for  the  Celebration,  during  which  time 
many  notable  persons  will  be  present,  especially  on  Wednesday, 
Alumni  Day,  and  Thursday,  Commencement  Day,  Jime  26th 
and  27th. 

The  Banquet  will  be  held  in  McDowell  Hall,  Wednesday  even- 
ing, at  8,30  o'clock,  (Harris  of  Baltimore,  Caterer.) 


Our  aim,  is,  primarily,  to  secure  a  large  attendance  of  the  Alumni 
and  former  Students  of  the  College  on  this  occasion;  secondly,  to 
have  as  many  as  possible  at  the  Banquet,  and  thirdly,  to  receive 
such  pecuniary  assistance  from  the  Alumni  as  they  may  be  willing 
to  contribute  toward  the  necessary  expenses  of  the  Celebration. 

Should  you  desire  to  participate  in  these  Centennial  exercises 
(which  we  strongly  urge  you  to  do,)  please  forward  to  L.  D.  Gass- 
away,  Annapolis,  Maryland,  the  sum  of  Three  dollars  ($3.00), 
which  will  entitle  you  to  a  Banquet  ticket;  and  Two  dollars  ($2.00) 
in  addition,  if  possible,  to  help  to  defray  other  expenses. 

Hoping  that  you  may  find  it  convenient  to  attend,  and  awaiting 
your  prompt  reply, 

Fraternally   yours,  &c. 

To  this  circular  a  general  and  generous  response  was 
made,  so  that  what  had  been  deemed  a  probability,  be- 
came an  assured  fact. 

Invitations  were  sent  out  in  the  name  of  the  Visitors 
and  Governors  of  the  College  to  many  of  the  older  and 
more  prominent  Institutions  of  Learning  throughout  the 
Country,  to  distinguished  Educators,  and  to  prominent 
citizens;  and  among  the  regrets  received  were  numerous 
expressions  of  kind  feelings  for  the  College,  and  earnest 
wishes  for  its  future  success. 


lactakttrtate  ^txmm 


BY 


Ti&E  Eight  Eeverend  William  Paret,  D,  D.,  LL.  D., 
Bishop  of  Maryland,  in  St.  Anne's  Church. 


On  Sunday  Morning  the  23d  of  June,  Members  of  the 
Faculty  of  St.  John's,  Students,  and  the  Graduating 
Class  in  academic  cap  and  gown,  marched  in  procession 
to  St.  Anne's  Church.  A  very  large  congregation  was 
present. 


"Christ,  in  Whom  are  hid  all  the  Treasures  of 
Wisdom  and  Knowledge." — Colossians  ii,  3. 

Is  this  language  intended  to  be  literal  ?  Or  is  it  figu- 
rative ?  Our  answer  must  depend  upon  the  true  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "Treasure."  It  is  commonly  used  to 
express  the  thought  of  great  abundance  of  money, 
jewels,  precious  metals  and  the  like.  And  Treasuries 
are  the  places  where  men  store  and  guard  things  of  this 
kind,  which  make  up  what  the  world  commonly  calls 
wealth.  Now  if  this  be  the  original  and  true  meaning 
of  the  word,  then  we  must  be  speaking  figuratively 
when  we  use  it  of  things  like  knowledge  and  wisdom 
which  have  no  material  being. 


But  if  a  treasure,  in  the  true  meaning,  be  simply 
sometMng  valuable  and  precious,  which  from  its  real 
worth  and  power  to  help  and  bless,  is  to  be  prized  and 
cherished  and  guarded,  then  its  application  to  money 
and  the  like  is  only  one  of  the  specific  uses  of  the  word 
which  has  rightly  a  much  wider  range  of  meaning. 

All  things  of  real  value,  all  things  which  from  their 
value  ought  to  be  prized  and  cherished,  are  treasures. 
Shall  we  say  that  treasure  is  the  accumulation  or  abun- 
dance of  wealth?  Take  the  definition  ;  and  remember  as 
we  do  so,  that  wealth,  in  the  derivation  and  careful 
meaning  of  the  word,  is  that  which  can  help  to  weal  or 
welfare.  Money  and  jewels  and  material  property  are 
wealth,  only  because  they  have  power  or  give  power  to 
promote  weal  or  welfare.  When  God  by  St.  Paul  bids 
every  man  seek  not  his  own,  but  another's  wealth,  He 
does  not  mean  another's  money,  but  his  happiness  and 
welfare.  It  is  then  a  true  use  of  the  word  when  we  take 
it  out  of  the  contracted  sense  into  which  it  has  been 
sufi"ered  to  fall.  It  means  whatever  can  be,  or  be  made, 
a  possession,  and  gathered  and  guarded  to  promote  real 
usefulness  and  welfare.  The  treasures  of  art  are  as 
truly  treasures  as  those  of  gold  and  wisdom  and  knowl- 
edge; actual  possessions  more  precious  than  rubies. 

They  are  positive  realities  which  as  truly  as  money  in 
any  form  may  be  sought  and  gained  by  man,  and  held 
and  increased  to  enlarge  his  powers  and  enrich  his  being. 

But  we  will  not  quarrel  with  the  two  uses  of  the 
word.  Each  helps  to  understand  the  other;  and  we  wish 
to  blend  the  meaning  to-day.  Let  the  perishing  mate- 
rial treasure  be  an  illustration  to  help  us  to  understand 
the  more  lasting  and  true. 


We  speak  then  of  man's  gathering  and  accumulation 
of  gold  and  property.  The  Bible  gives  the  list  of  Solo- 
mon's possessions,  and  counts  up  his  gold  and  silver  and 
precious  stones  and  ivory,  exceeding  all  that  are  in  the 
earth,  for  riches.  And  other  Eastern  Monarchs  then 
and  in  later  times  laid  up  their  enormous  wealth  until 
"the  Treasures  of  Ind,"  "the  riches  of  far  Cathay," 
the  "Oriental  Magnificence, " became  familiar  words  and 
thoughts  for  the  poets  and  other  writers.  Like  Pharaoh 
they  had  their  Treasure  Cities,  where  in  many  a  strong 
and  strongly  guarded  room,  the  gold  and  silver  were 
piled  in  enormous  quantities,  with  the  precious  stones 
"that  could  not  be  told  nor  numbered  for  multitude." 
Multiply  that  thought  ten  thousand  fold,  and  try  to 
imagine  the  combined  treasures  of  all  mankind,  and  of 
all  ages.  Think  of  China,  and  its  thousands  of  years  of 
gigantic  riches;  India,  with  its  many  Emperors,  and 
Persia,  and  Babylon  and  Chaldea, — and  Solomon's  abun- 
dance, and  Egypt,  and  Rome,  and  Carthage,  and  Athens, 
and  Corinth,  and  Ephesus,  and  later  of  Venice  and  Italy, 
and  Holland,  and  England,  and  Florence,  and  Spain,  all 
rich  beyond  reckoning.  Add  the  almost  fabulous  stories 
of  Mexico  and  Peru,  and  all  that  which  proves  them  not 
so  fabulous,  the  mines  of  California  and  Australia. 
What  mind  can  imagine  the  wonder  of  the  grand  sum  of 
such  possessions,  which  the  greed  and  ingenuity  of  man 
have  gathered  for  him  out  of  the  things  that  were 
hidden  in  the  rocks  and  sands  of  earth!  The  sum  total 
of  all  such  earthly  treasures !  It  is  beyond  our  power  of 
reckoning. 

Turn  now  to  a  larger  measure  still.  .  All  this  is  but 
man's  gathering  during  the  little  time  he  has  lived  on 


8 


earth,  from  the  stores  of  such  rich  material  upon  the 
earth's  surface.  He  has  only  touched  the  outer  cover- 
ing. Only  a  few  spots  here  and  there  have  been  opened 
as  mines,  and  in  these  a  few  hundred  feet  at  most  would 
measure  the  depth  to  which  such  searching  has  gone, 
and  there  are  left  untouched  the  massive  mountains  and 
the  solid  bulk  of  the  planet  within.  A  million  of  million 
times  more  than  all  that  man  has  reached,  lies  yet  undis- 
covered. These  are  God's  treasures,  God's  stores;  in  His 
treasure  vaults;  which  He  has  not  permitted  man  to 
touch.  What  unimaginable  amounts  of  precious  things 
lie  stored  in  those  thousands  of  miles  of  mystery  beneath 
our  feet;  the  glittering  veins  and  masses  which  human 
eyes  shall  never  see;  the  jewels;  and  the  molten  elements 
from  which  God  poured  them  forth.  Shall  we  take  a 
thought  wider  still?  This  is  but  one  of  worlds  innu- 
merable in  the  seemingly  boundless  universe.  And  the 
Spectroscope  has  told  us  that  in  those  other  worlds  and 
suns,  are  stored  the  same  metallic  elements,  the  same 
material  for  precious  things  which  we  know  here  on 
earth.  Man  with  his  thousands  of  years  of  hungry  toil- 
ing has  but  gathered  a  drop  out  of  the  boundless  oceans 
of  God's  possessions.  In  God's  hand  are  hid  all  these 
treasures.  "The  Gold  and  the  Silver  are  mine"  He  has 
said;  and  even  when  man  has  laid  his  hand  upon  them, 
God,  *as  He  has  just  now  so  awfully  shown  us,  can  re- 
claim in  a  moment,  the  souls  of  men,  and  the  millions 
they  had  toiled  to  gather. 

Now  just  as  really  as  men  accumulate  gold  and  silver, 
as  really  do  they  store  uj)  and  increase  wisdom  and 
knowledge.     Mind    by   mind,    and    soul   by   soul,    each 

*The  disaster  at  Johnstown,  Pa. 


9 


gathers  and  gains.  And  the  combined  wisdom  of  the  in- 
dividuals, communicated  by  interchange  of  thought  in 
speech  and  writing  and  books,  becomes  like  our  imagined 
sum  total  of  material  wealth,  an  immense  accumulation; 
a  gigantic  treasure. 

Can  you  imagine  it  ?  All  the  studies,  all  the  learn- 
ing, all  the  wisdom,  of  all  men,  in  all  ages,  from  the 
very  beginning,  upon  every  subject  which  man's  mind 
can  touch  ?  Men  used  to  think  these  later  ages  the  only 
wise  ones.  But  we  are  looking  back  now  with  growing 
wonder  upon  the  proofs  of  amazing  knowledge  in  the 
very  earliest  days;  in  pre-historic  China  and  Persia,  and 
India  and  Egypt.  Not  only  the  beauties  of  their  philo- 
sophic thought,  but  their  knowledge  of  nature,  their 
mathematic,  and  astronomic,  and  mechanical  researches 
and  results.  There  are  many  things  in  which  we  have 
gone  beyond  them;  yet  the  wisest  builders  and  thinkers 
of  these  later  days  must  in  some  things  bow  to  the 
minds  that  planned  and  built  the  pyramids.  And  how 
men  in  our  own  day  have  added  to  those  stores,  explor- 
ing the  hidden  things  of  nature, — the  laws  of  power  in 
every  form,  of  light,  of  sight,  of  sound,  of  heat,  of  elec- 
tricity, of  mechanical  combination,  of  chemical  action 
and  analysis  ;  and  how  alike  with  gigantic  strides,  and 
with  minutest  microscopic  study,  and  subtlest,  and  tire- 
less effort  of  thought,  they  each  day  add  to  the  world's 
possession  of  wisdom  and  knowledge.  I  thought,. Breth- 
ren, that  I  would  help  you  to  some  conception  of  the 
vastness  of  these  mental  accumulations  and  possessions 
of  mankind  ;  but  it  is  impossible  ;  it  appals  me  as  I  get 
nearer  to  it.  The  vastness  of  all  material  wealth  sinks 
into  insignificance  compared  with  it. 


10 


How  immense  the  mere  number  of  its  subjects  with 
which  the  human  learning  has  to  deal !  Take  some  En- 
cyclopedia and  run  through  its  alphabet  of  the  sciences, 
and  branches  of  sciences  and  investigation,  and  so  count 
up  the  mines  and  the  veins  from  which  this  precious  trea- 
sure is  still  being  gathered.  What  men  have  learned 
and  are  learning  about  themselves,  and  their  own  bodies 
and  beings  ;  some  exploring  the  secrets  of  the  human 
frame,  and  every  limb  and  special  organ  having  its  own 
band  of  workers;  some  studying  the  laws  and  workings 
of  the  mind  ;  some  pondering  the  problem  of  the  con- 
nection with  the  body  ;  some  studying  man's  soul  and 
spiritual  being  ;  some,  the  mystery  of  what  life  is  and 
in  what  it  consists  ;  some  giving  their  life's  work  to  the 
study  of  bodily  disease  ;  some  to  mental  disease  ;  and 
how  out  of  these  grow  the  larger  studies  of  combined 
humanity  ;  the  social,  national,  and  economic  relations 
of  men,  and  their  history.  Think  what  scholars  have 
done  and  are  doing  in  studying  the  earth  on  which  we 
live.  Gathering  some  facts,  and  building  larger  theories 
as  to  its  beginning,  and  the  times  and  laws  and  methods 
of  its  growth;  the  elements  that  constitute  it;  the  powers 
at  work  within  it, — and  the  laws  by  which  they  work  ; 
think  of  the  treasures  of  wisdom  that  have  been  gathered 
in  the  studies  of  animal  life,  and  of  vegetable  life.  Think 
of  the  achievements  in  chemistry,  and  electricity  ;  the 
wondrous  wisdom  of  mechanical  combinations  and  inven- 
tions ;  of  astronomy  that  studies  not  one  world,  but  all 
the  millions  of  them,  and  the  ties  that  link  them  to- 
gether and  would  master  the  secrets  of  the  Universe. 
The  wisdom  of  mathematics,  of  language  and  its  philo- 
sophy.    Think  of  theology, — and  what,  by  Revelation, 


11 


natural  and  supernatural,  man  has  learned,  and  is  trying 
to  learn  concerning  God,  His  being  and  nature  and  work- 
ing, and  our  own  relation  to  Him  as  spiritual  beings. 
Dear  Friends,  I  cannot  even  hint  to  your  thoughts  the 
thousandth  part  of  the  grand  subjects,  and  the  divisions 
and  sub-divisions  of  the  labors  and  results  of  human 
knowledge  and  wisdom.  How  vast  and  many  the  mines, 
how  countless  the  veins, — how  maniform  the  material 
from  which  the  eager,  tireless  minds  of  men  are  bring- 
ing up  to  the  open  air  of  actual  use  the  hidden  truths. 
How  lavge  the  aim,  how  minute  the  working, — how  grand 
the  results  by  which  this  great  store  of  knowledge  grows. 

Think  of  the  time,  and  there  was  such  a  time, — when 
there  were  but  ten  men  living  upon  earth,  and  their 
almost  infantile  ignorance  of  its  properties  and  laws,  and 
of  the  shining  worlds  around  ;  and  then,  taking  but  one 
item  in  the  long  catalogue, — think  how  in  the  long  ages, 
fact  was  added  to  fact,  and  observation  to  observation, 
and  step  by  step  man's  wisdom  greiu, — till  now  he  mea- 
sures carefully  the  unimaginable  distances,  which  sepa- 
rate planets  and  suns,  and  marks  out  their  paths,  and 
counts  their  speed  to  the  minutest  fraction  of  a  second, — 
and  weighs  each  separate  bulk,  and  turns  the  spectro- 
scope upon  the  star  that  floats  billions  of  miles  away  ; — 
and  tells  us  what  are  the  metals  and  minerals  and  gases 
that  compose  it.     So,  every  branch  of  science  has  grown. 

Gather  them  all  together  and  these  are  the  treasures 
of  knowledge  and  wisdom  which  man  has  gathered. 

The  grand  libraries  of  the  world  are  treasure  cities, 
where  in  countless  manuscripts  and  printed  books  such 
gathered  wealth  is  stored.  The  Halls  of  learning,  like 
this  venerable  College,  and  the  great  universities  are 


12 


workshops,  where  it  is  fashioned  into  fresh  forms  and 
combinations, — the  mints  which  turn  the  solid  ingots 
into  current  coin.  And  from  mind  to  mind, — from  brain 
to  brain,  it  passes  in  exchange  and  use.  And  faster  than 
the  gold  and  silver  flowing  in  from  our  far  West,  and 
from  Australia,  the  tide  of  increasing  knowledge  pours  in 
every  day.  Among  all  the  wonders  of  the  human  race, 
its  achievements  in  accumulated  wisdom  and  knowledge, 
are  by  far  the  most  amazing. 

And  yet,  dear  friends,  this  too,  is  but  the  scratching 
of  the  surface.  Like  the  miles  upon  miles  of  the  solid 
unsearched  earth  beneath  us  ;  like  the  gathered  bulk  of 
the  countless,  mysterious  worlds  of  far-reaching  space, 
is  the  measureless  wealth  of  truth  and  truths  as  yet  un- 
reached, undreamed  of,  by  human  intellect. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  living  searchers  and  gatherers, — 
perhaps  the  leader  of  the  world  in  natural  science,  has 
expressed  under  another  figure  what  I  am  trying  to 
speak  ;  he  writes,  that  with  all  that  man  has  learned, 
and  with  all  that  ages  and  human  study  may  yet  accom- 
plish, we  stand  upon  the  shore  of  a  boundless  ocean  of 
truth  unknown  and  hid  in  mystery,  across  which  the 
mere  human  mind  may  never  hope  to  pass. 

Alas!  that  the  littleness  of  human  knowledge  and 
capacity  which  he  thus  declares,  has  not  made  him  more 
reverent  and  humble  in  thinking  and  speaking  of  the 
things  which  may  be  possible  to  power  and  intellect 
divine  ! 

For  all  these  things  still  hidden  from  man,  are,  like 
gold  and  silver  yet  buried  in  the  deep  heart  of  the  earth, 
actually  existent  in  the  sight  and  knowledge  of  God. 

Before  man  found  the  gold,  it  was  there  ;  and  all  that 
he  has  failed  to  find,  is  as  real  as  what  his  eyes  have 


13 


seen.  Before  man  found  it,  God  made  it, — gathered  the 
elements  of  its  being,  watched  its  growth,  fixed  the  laws 
of  its  distribution,  and  knew  where  every  grain  of  it 
was  hidden. 

Before  man  discovers  what  he  calls  a  new  truth, 
that  truth  was  in  existence,  was  a  fact,  and  w^as  clear  to 
that  infinite  and  divine  intellect,  from  which  nothing  is 
hid.  Age  had  passed  upon  age,  before  the  mind  of  man 
conceived  what  has  been  called  the  law  of  gravity ; — but 
through  all  those  ages, — the  force  or  law  of  which  we 
thus  speak  was  unceasingly  measuring  the  places  and 
movements  of  all  worlds,  and  of  every  atom  in  each. 
Ages  upon  ages  passed  before  man  dreamed  of  the  won- 
ders that  in  our  own  day  have  flashed  into  human  know- 
ledge and  use  in  the  mysteries  of  electric  force,  but  all 
these, — and  the  still  unimaginable  things  which  may  be 
hereafter  discovered, — were  as  real  from  the  beginning 
as  they  are  to-day.  Though  man  should  yet  live  on 
earth  for  years  unending,  and  his  work  in  gathering  wis- 
dom's yet  hidden  treasures,  should  go  on  with  ever-ac- 
celerated swiftness  beyond  the  present  marvellous  rate, 
he  will,  at  his  wisest,  still  be  blundering  and  guessing  at 
the  very  threshold  of  what  has  forever  been  grasped  by 
One  Intellect  absolutely. 

Well  may  St.  Paul  cry  out  ''Oh,  the  depth  of  the  wis- 
dom and  knowledge  of  God."  Man's  mightiest  achieve- 
ments are  but  the  surface  scratching.  "In  Him  are  hid 
all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge." 

If  I  have  at  all  succeeded  in  my  efibrt  to  show  the  real 
meaning  of  the  words  of  my  text, — may  I  have  your 
patience  for  a  very  few  words  concerning  its  use. 

And  first  one  or  two  things  which  I  can  merely  sug- 
gest, for  your  thought.     They  are  far  too  large  for  our 


14 


full  study  now.  Had  it  been  written  that  "In  God  are 
hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  "  it  would 
have  seemed  but  natural  and  right  that  to  the  Infinite 
Deity, — the  infinite  and  absolute  mastership  and  posses- 
sion of  all  intellect  and  intellectual  power  should  belong. 
When  then  the  word  is  not  "God"  but  "Christ,"— 
"Christ  in  whom  are  .hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge,"  that  simple  sentence  becomes  one  of 
the  grandest  and  most  absolute  declarations  that  Christ 
is  God.  It  did  not  intend  to  assert  Christ's  divinity. 
That  was  not  a  point  in  the  thought  at  the  time. 

But  all  the  more  powerfully,  because  of  its  unintend- 
edness,  it  does  declare  His  divinity.  St.  Paul  knew  that 
great  truth.  His  mind  had  no  room  for  question  about 
it, — and  so  with  the  full  force  of  unhesitating  accept- 
ance, he  simply  asserts  as  belonging  to  Christ,  the  abso- 
lute infiniteness  of  knowledge  which  can  belong  to  none 
but  God.  But  that  Christ  was  also  a  man  ;  and  we  think 
of  the  Child  Jesus  ;  the  village  carpenter  at  Nazareth  ; 
the  gentle,  patient  man, — who  from  the  humble  earthly 
home  went  forth  to  teach  men,  to  bless  them,  to  bear 
their  misunderstandings,  their  contempt,  their  hatred, 
their  cruelties.  And  grand  as  that  life  seemed  to  me 
before — it  seems  far  grander  now,  as  I  remember  that 
"in  Him  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  know- 
ledge." Marvellous  His  words  seemed  before.  Simple, 
direct,  unpretending,  unboastful, — but  with  a  power  and 
possession  of  truth,  in  which  all  the  ages  have  found  no 
room  for  error.  I  remember  how  He  said  when  speaking 
of  the  things  of  Heaven,  "We  speak  that  we  do  know." 
And  in  Him  alone  of  all  who  ever  walked  the  earth, 
was  there  never  a  thought  or  word  that  could  conflict 


15 


with  St.  Peter's  loving  Confession  :  "Thoii  knowest  all 
things."  But  how  amazing  in  its  tenderness  is  the  con- 
descension that  brought  that  absoluteness  of  infinite 
knowledge  thus  into  the  simple  every  day  conversations 
and  relations  of  human  life.  How  wondrous  the  love, 
thus  to  bring  down  that  infinite  intellect,  to  walk  for 
awhile  in  the  narrow  ways  of  man's  scanty  comprehen- 
sion ! 

These,  Brethren,  are  my  suggestions.  And  now  for 
my  last. 

The  infiniteness  of  intellectual  possibilities  ;  the  in- 
finiteness  of  the  facts  and  relations  and  workings  of  the 
mind  ;  the  reality  of  these  treasures  of  wisdom  and  know- 
ledge, are  a  proof  of  the  mighty  intellect  that  called  them 
into  being.  If  the  order  and  power  of  the  material  world 
compel  the  thought  of  an  infinite  power,  the  order  and 
wonderful  beauties  of  a  world  of  intellect,  compel  the 
confession  of  an  infinite  understanding.  It  is  a  wonder 
to  me  that  any  man  could  be  an  atheist  who  studies  the 
human  body,  or  the  nature  of  material  things.  But  a 
hundred  fold  more  wonderful  that  any  man  can  be  a 
student  of  the  mind  and  its  workings,  and  its  combina- 
tions and  powers  and  possessions,  and  deny  the  being  of 
a  God.  Sad  indeed,  and  ruinous,  is  the  pride  of  intellect 
which  sometimes  takes  that  direction.  Thank  God,  that 
the  annals  of  human  learning  show  almost  all  of  its 
great  names  in  the  past,  among  the  believers  in  God  and 
Christ.  Thank  God  that  among  the  wondrous  scholars 
of  our  own  memory,  and  of  this  present  time,  with  very 
few  exceptions,  the  noblest  and  best  have  not  weakened 
the  vigor,  nor  fettered  the  freedom  of  their  thought, 
but  rather  ennobled  it  and  given  it  grander  range  by  in- 


16 


spiring  it  with  a  reverent  belief  in  God  and  love  for 
Christ  and  His  wisdom  and  love. 

The  "Agnostic"  claims  indeed  to  be  freed  from  fetters, 
because  he  casts  off  religion.  But  in  reality,  he  is  bind- 
ing fetters  on  himself,  by  thus  limiting  to  things  of  ma- 
terial sense,  or  of  which  his  own  imperfect  intellect 
may  be  the  test  and  measure,  the  powers  of  mind  and 
soul  which  God  means  to  reach  out  to  things  invisible 
and  eternal.  God  has  opened  two  worlds  to  human 
thought.  The  Agnostic  repudiates  one  of  them,  and 
dwarfs  his  being  in  so  doing. 

Oh,  scholars, — learners, — seekers  for  wisdom  and  know- 
ledge,— ^whether  in  the  path  of  special  investigations,  the 
finding  and  bringing  up  of  truths  yet  unknown ;  or  those 
who,  as  in  this  College,  labor  in  learning  and  teaching, 
and  storing  up  and  using  the  wisdom  already  gained, — 
let  the  grand  lesson  of  our  text  teach  us  the  scholar's 
true  humility  ;  to  recognize  not  in  word  only,  but  in 
deepest  conscience,  man's  narrow  range  and  abounding 
error;  to  remember  that  however  he  may  err,  or  how 
little  he  may  reach,  there  is  such  a  thing  as  truth  infalli- 
ble,— and  that  the  Lordship  of  that  belongs  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ, 

Thank  God  that  from  this  institution  in  the  hundred 
years  of  its  work  for  which  we  now  rejoice, — it  has  sent . 
forth  its  bands  of  scholars,  trained  not  to  be  doubters, 
but  believers,  by  the  power  of  an  education  in  which 
Christian  faith  and  reverence  and  docility  were  felt  to  be 
not  hindrances  and  frailties,  but  stepping  stones  to 
grander  reach  of  mind  and  soul!  We  know  not  what  for- 
tunes yet  await  the  labors  here.  But  God  grant  that 
whatever  course  they  take,  St.  John's  College  may  be 


17 


true  to  its  name,  as  a  place  of  Christian  learning;  a 
bulwark  against  that  narrow  and  hardening  school  of 
Science  which  will  own  no  science  save  in  material 
things.  There  are  wonders  undiscovered  on  earth  and 
planets  and  suns,  which  make  of  man's  grandest  accom- 
plishments only  puny  child's  play.  There  are  wonders 
in  spiritual  being  and  intelligent  life  beyond  the  range 
of  this  human  race,  grander  orders  of  life  and  thought; 
and  almost  infinite  are  the  truths  concerning  us,  that  are 
as  much  unknown  as  the  spaces  which  lie  beyond  the 
outermost  recognized  star.  But  there  is  an  eye  that 
looks  all  through  those  far  far  regions  of  space  unex- 
plored, and  an  intellect  to  which  every  truth  or  relation 
or  possibility  of  the  Universe  is  clear  as  the  noon-day, 
and  that  is  "Christ,  in  whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures 
of  wisdom  and  knowledge. ' ' 


On  Sunday  Evening,  the  23d  of  June,  the  Keverend 
Vaughan  S.  Collins,  A.  M.  in  Salem  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  delivered  a  Sermon  before  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  of  St.  John's  College,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  large  audience,  including  Members  of  the 
Faculty  and  many  Students. 


trm0n. 


BY 


The  Keverend  Vaughan  S.  Collins,  A.  M., 
Pastor  of  Scott  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Wilming- 
ton, Delaware. 


Behold,  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  is  wisdom;  and 

TO  DEPART   FROM  EVIL  IS  UNDERSTANDING. Joh  XXviii.   28. 

The  work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in 
College  is  my  theme. 

There  is  a  demand  in  our  day  as  never  before  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  for  education ;  but  this  to  be  most  effec- 
tive must  develope  man  in  his  three-fold  nature.  It  is  a 
matter  of  daily  experience  that  a  man  may  be  developed 
or  educated  on  one  side  of  his  nature  and  not  on  another. 
He  may  be  developed  physically  until  his  body  becomes 
the  nicest  of  machines;  but  that  may  be  all,  he  knows 
nothing  else,  is  fitted  for  nothing  else.  How  often  we 
hear  the  remark  "He  is  a  fine  mechanic;  but  he  is  good 
for  nothing  else. "  That  means  the  man  has  been  well 
educated  physically — his  eye  and  hand  have  been  very 
thoroughly  trained;  yet,  in  intellect  he  may  be  a  babe, 
and  in  morals  a  demon. 

So,  too,  we  find  men  educated  intellectually.  Their 
heads  are   full  of  scientific   and   literary   lore.      They 


20 


''understand  all  mysteries  and  all  knowledge. "  Yet,  all 
that  intellect  is  carted  around  in  a  little,  weazened,  half 
dead  body ;  and  their  moral  nature  is  as  little  developed 
as  their  physical.  They  are  book-worms,  nothing  more. 
They  can  tell  you  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Arbela  or 
the  fall  of  Babylon,  but  not  the  date  when  the  gas  bill 
is  due.  They  can  tell  you  all  about  the  history  of  the 
Pyramids,  or  the  formation  of  the  Macedonian  phalanx, 
or  the  Eleusinian  mysteries;  but  not  mysteries  of  making 
a  livelihood,  or  of  buying  beef  and  vegetables.  Tbese 
are  intellectual  men — intellect  gone  to  seed.  Then  you 
will  find  men  educated  spiritually,  or  religiously,  but 
undeveloped  along  the  other  two  sides  of  their  nature. 
These  are  right  at  home  on  religious  matters.  They 
can  read  prayers  like  a  priest,  or  sing,  or  give  good  advice, 
and  love  God  and  men  most  sincerely;  and  if  they  should 
die  would  go  straight  home  to  heaven;  yet  they  may  be 
very  poor  mechanics,  miserable  merchants,  failures  in 
business  matters.  In  physique  and  mind  they  may  be 
very  much  dwarfed  and  distorted. 

It  is  evident  such  education  makes  one-sided  men ;  for 
the  education  is  one-sided.  It  is  also  apparent  that  the 
ideal  man  has  all  three  of  these  diverse  natures  of  his 
developed  or  educated  to  their  highest  capabilities. 

The  ideal  education  is  that  which  tends  to  develope 
this  ideal  man.  It  should  be  the  aim  of  all  our  col- 
leges to  afford  opportunities  for  this  complex  or  com- 
posite education. 

I.     Physical   Education. 

Any  system  that  loses  sight  of  the  fact  that  man  is 
primarily  and  essentially,  an  animal  is  built  upon  a  false 


21 


foundation.  We  are  animals — animal  bodies,  animal 
appetites,  animal  propensions,  animal  functions;  and  we 
will  have  these  as  long  as  we  are  in  the  body.  However 
much  the  intellectual  man  may  scorn  this  so-called  ''lower 
part"  of  his  being;  and  the  religious  enthusiast  may  rant 
about  the  ''prison  house  of  clay;"  and  seek  by  fasting 
and  penance  self-imposed,  to  macerate  and  maim  the  body, 
that  the  spiritual  nature  may  shine  forth  more  clearly 
through  the  rents  made  in  the  earthly  casket ;  the  fact  still 
remains  that  we  are  animals,  and  as  such  have  animal 
wants.  The  animal  life  begins  before  the  intellectual 
and  spiritual  life  awake.  So  education  should  primarily 
be  physical  education.  From  earliest  childhood  the 
laws  of  health  should  be  taught,  and  their  demands  made 
imperative.  Let  the  child  understand  that  they  can 
never  be  the  model  man  or  woman  unless  they  have  the 
model  body  for  the  model  mind  and  model  spirit  to  dwell 
in.  Let  them  be  taught  that  lily  fingers  and  wasp 
waists  are  never  to  be  purchased  at  the  price  of  soft 
muscles  and  cramped  viscera.  It  is  a  sign  of  better  days 
when  our  colleges  are  awaking  to  this  subject  of  athletics 
all  over  the  land,  and  encouraging  the  students,  and  in 
some  even  compelling  the  students  to  take  part.  A 
college  is  not  worthy  of  the  name  that  does  not  provide 
apparatus  and  instruction  to  develope  its  students  to  the 
highest  degree  of  physical  perfection  consistent  with 
health.  Let  the  student  be  constantly  impressed  with  the 
fact  that  he  who  goes  forth  from  the  college  with  a 
diseased,  or  half  developed  body,  no  matter  how  full  his 
head  may  be,  will  have  a  terrible  struggle  to  keep  up  with 
his  brother  of  more  brawn,  if,  perhaps,  with  a  few  less 
Greek  roots  in  his  head. 


22 


The  body,  however,  is  not  the  chief  thing  to  receive 
attention  in  college;  it  is  only  one  of  the  co-ordinates 
of  importance.  The  college  is  not  organized  for  the  pur- 
pose of  turning  out  champion  hase-ballists  or  oars-men, 
or  developing  professional  pugilists  or  pedestrians.  The 
student  whose  highest  ambition  is  to  be  the  best  athlete 
in  the  school,  or  to  win  the  captaincy  of  the  ball  team  or 
boating  crew,  has  a  very  low  ideal  as  to  what  the  college 
may  be  to  him. 

The  most  prominent  feature  of  our  colleges  usually  is 

,11.     Mental  Training. 

This  I  would  call  higher  education,  not  in  contradis- 
tinction from  the  education  of  the  lower  grade  schools, 
as  is  usual;  but  in  contrast  with  the  physical,  which 
is  the  positive,  or  primary  education. 

The  multitudinous  helps  afforded  by  the  college  for 
mental  developement  might  be  grouped  under  three  heads: 
the  mingling  with  professors,  as  superiors  in  learning, 
with  students  as  equals,  and  the  opportunity  of  reading 
good  books  under  the  wise  guidance  of  master  minds. 

The  youth  often  comes  to  college  with  very  exalted 
ideas  of  his  mental  attainments.  Father  and  mother 
have  told  him  so  often  how  smart  he  is  ;  obliging 
neighbors  have  so  frequently  pointed  him  out  as  the 
brightest  young  man  in  the  neighborhood;  and  finally 
the  village  school  master  has  acknowledged  that  he  can 
teach  no  more — the  boy  has  learned  all  he  knows  and 
more  too;  these  combined  so  inflate  the  young  man  that 
by  the  time  his  clothes  are  packed  for  college  he  finds 
his  hat  three  sizes  too  small  for  his  head.     He  knows  it 


23 


all.  But  when  he  reaches  college,  a  wise  looking  doctor 
of  science,  or  doctor  of  philosophy,  or  doctor  of  divinity, 
or  doctor  of  laws,  or  doctor  of  some  real  or  imaginary 
something — when  this  wise  looking  doctor,  with  his  gold 
glasses,  and  shiny  bald  head,  and  fierce  mustache  or 
shaggy  beard,  takes  that  youth  into  a  gloomy,  dingy 
room,  (that  has  not  been  aired  all  summer,)  hands  him 
a  catalogue,  points  out  his  own  name,  and  motions  him 
to  be  seated.  The  youth  reads,  "J.  Solomon  Wiseman, 
A.  B.,  A.  M.,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  L.  H.  D.,  S.  T. 
D.,  A.  R.  S.  S.,  Professor  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Lan- 
guages, Lecturer  Royal  to  the  University  Antique.  " 
He  begins  to  look  from  the  professor  to  the  catalogue, 
and  from  the  catalogue  to  the  professor;  and  every  time 
he  looks  he  sees  more  to  wonder  and  admire.  He  now 
finds  his  head  much  too  small  for  his  hat.  What  he 
thought  he  knew  before  coming  to  college  he  now  finds 
rapidly  oozing  from  his  boot-soles  or  evaporating  from 
his  brain.  Presently,  when  he  can  speak,  he  faintly  asks, 
pointing  to  the  many  titled  name  in  the  catalogue, 
''Is  that  you?"  The  professor  coldly  replies,  ''Est, 
Quid  rogas  ?  ' '  The  poor  youth's  heart  fails,  perspiration 
breaks  out  all  over  him,  and  he  gasps  to  think  he  is  in 
the  presence  of  such  surpassing  wisdom. 

That  first  interview  is  generally  sufficient  to  knock 
the  self-conceit  out  of  the  newcomer;  but  if  he  should 
have  a  relapse,  the  sophomores  have  an  infallible  remedy 
they  will  be  only  too  happy  to  apply. 

Exaggeration  aside,  this  contact  with  learned  men  is 
a  vast  help  to  a  young  man  seeking  truth  and  mental 
ripeness.      These   professors  have   passed   through  the 


24 


same  troubles  of  mind,  of  perplexing  doubt,  of  mental 
darkness  and  uncertainty,  in  which  the  student  so  often 
finds  himself;  and  to  have  a  learned,  level  headed  friend 
to  whom  you  may  go  at  any  time  to  have  doubts  removed, 
and  find  guidance  in  one's  search  for  truth,  is  a  boon  of 
inestimable  value.  Were  I  speaking  to  professors  instead 
of  to  students,  I  would  say,  every  professor,  to  fill  his 
position  properly,  must  be  a  Christian  ;  and  a  professor, 
who  is  approachable  in  the  class  room  only,  is  a  poor 
substitute  for  a  teacher.  The  sooner  he  seeks  elsewhere 
for  a  situation  the  better  for  college  and  students. 

The  contact  with  students  is  also  wonderfully  stim- 
ulating and  helpful.  It  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
to  get  community  of  interest  anywhere  to  such  an  extent 
as  among  students  of  the  same  college.  Young  men  of 
the  most  active  period  of  life,  living  together,  studying 
the  same  books,  eating  at  the  same  table,  sharing  the  same 
labors,  the  same  sports,  day  after  day,  week  after  week, 
for  three  or  four  years — no  wonder  college  boys  always 
have  been  and  always  will  be  clannish.  In  college,  as  no 
where  else  on  earth,  a  young  man  is  most  accurately 
measured  as  to  what  he  really  is.  In  the  world  it  de- 
pends to  quite  a  degree  as  to  how  much  money  your 
father  has,  or  who  your  grand-father  was,  whether  you 
will  have  friends  or  not.  No  matter  what  you  do,  before 
the  world  will  applaud  it  will  stop  to  ask,  "Who  is 
that  fellow?"  Not  so  with  college  boys.  No  matter 
who  your  father  is,  if  you  are  a  dunce  they  will  not  be 
long  in  telling  you  so.  No  matter  how  many  sweet,  pet 
names  your  mother  may  call  you,  if  you  are  a  coward 
and  a  sneak,  the  boys  do  not  hesitate  to  brand  you  by 


25 


♦  the  true  name.  College  boys  are  the  truest  democrats — 
they  believe  in  every  boy  having  a  fair  chance.  They 
are  also  the  truest  aristocrats — they  believe  in  letting 
the  best  man  have  first  place.  You  can  not  pass  a 
counterfeit  on  college  boys.  They  hate  shams;  but  no 
matter  from  what  humble  surroundings  a  new  man  may 
come,  if  he  proves  himself  a  good,  true,  honest  man  the 
college  boys  will  rally  round  and  stand  by  him.  I  some- 
times think  it  is  worth  the  time  and  cost  of  a  course  at 
college  to  get  one's  proper  rating. 

Then  comes  the  benefit  of  books.  Our  college  libra- 
ries are  Wisdom's  banquet  rooms,  spread  with  all  the 
dainties  the  Goddess  can  provide,  with  doors  wide  open 
to  all  students,  and  over  the  entrance  the  word  "Wel- 
come !  "  What  treasures  of  priceless  worth  are  stored 
upon  those  shelves  !  What  jewels  rare,  of  mind  and 
heart,  lie  hidden  within  those  coverings  of  skin  and 
cloth  !  Student,  you  are  greatly  wronging'  yourself  if 
you  fail  to  work  this  mine  of  mental  wealth.  The  library 
is  the  great  improvement  of  the  modern  over  the  univer- 
sity of  the  middle  ages.  Then  if  a  student  would  learn 
he  must  go  to  the  living  teacher.  Books  were  more 
costly  than  a  journey  to  the  place  where  the  lecturer 
taught.  Hungering  for  light  and  knowledge,  without 
books  to  satisfy  the  craving,  I  am  not  surprised  that 
thirty  thousand  students  from  all  parts  of  Europe  flocked 
to  Paris  to  learn  of  Abelard;  and  ten  thousand  were  study- 
ing law  one  year  at  Bologna. 

Suppose  then  you  educate  the  physique  of  the  young 
man  to  its  highest  possible  development — until  every 
muscle,  sinew,  bone  and  nerve  is  in  most  perfect  con- 


26 


dition  of  power  and  sensibility.  Then  suppose  you  have 
at  the  same  time  trained  his  mind,  until  by  means  of 
professors,  students,  and  books  he  is  cultured  to  the 
highest  possible  degree — filled  with  the  love  of  the  past 
and  the  science  and  men  of  to-day.  What  then  ?  Have 
you  benefited  the  young  man  ?  No,  you  have  cursed  him 
if  you  stop  there.  Physical  and  mental  culture  a  curse? 
Yes,  a  curse  if  you  stop  there.  I  know  grim  old  Carlyle 
says,  that  if  the  devil  should  ask  him  the  way  to  the 
school  house,  he  would  point  him  the  way;  for  he  would 
be  less  a  devil  by  learning  geography  and  philosophy. 
I  say  such  talk  is  nonsense.  To  educate  the  devil  would 
be  to  make  him  a  still  worse  devil,  a  devil  of  increased 
power  for  evil,  unless  his  nature  be  changed. 

Let  me  illustrate.  A  youth  of  eighteen  years  is  noticed 
to  be  uncommonly  strong.  He  can  lift  more,  can  carry 
more  than  any  man  in  the  shops.  He  is  taken  from  the 
shops  and  physically  educated  until  he  is  called  an  Adonis, 
a  model  of  physical  perfection, — his  eye  like  that  of  an 
eagle,  his  hand  as  quick  as  the  kitten  and  strong  as  the 
tiger.  But  your  training  has  transformed  an  honest  shop- 
boy  into  a  champion  prize-fighter,  who  now  starts  out  to 
prove  he  can  whip  any  man  in  the  world;  and  so  fond  of 
fighting  is  he,  that  if  he  can  find  no  one  else  to  fight,  he 
goes  home  to  beat  his  wife  until  she  is  compelled  to  leave 
him.  Has  not  your  physical  education  cursed  that  young 
man? 

Take  another  case.  Here  is  a  man  who  is  a  marvel  in 
iron  work.  His  especial  delight  is  in  making  fine  tools. 
He  can  temper  a  chisel  that  will  cut  anything  that  needs 
cutting,  or  a  drill  that  will  bore  into  the  hardest  chilled 


27 


steel  like  wood.  He  is  justly  proud  of  his  skill,  gets 
good  wages,  and  is  content.  That  man  gets  a  little  men- 
tal education.  As  his  mind  expands  he  begins  to  think 
beyond  the  four  walls  of  his  shop.  He  gets  to  think 
that  his  skill  would  be  better  paid  in  breaking  safes  than 
in  making  them.  He  becomes  a  bank  burglar.  Ask  him 
as  he  lies  in  prison  to  day,  if  his  mental  education  was 
not  a  curse  to  him. 

It  is  the  same  in  more  purely  mental  culture.  What 
do  I  care  if  a  man  knows  all  there  is  to  be  known,  and 
can  pour  out  his  knowledge  in  silver  streams  of  polished 
eloquence,  glittering  with  jewels  of  wit  and  adorned  with 
the  beauties  of  rhetoric — what  care  I  for  all  these  if  from 
his  mouth  there  comes  the  false  instead  of  the  true? 
What  difference  if  he  knows  all  about  the  Phoenicians 
and  Assyrians,  if  he  will  not  pay  his  debts  ? 

Suppose  you  determine  to  build  a  locomotive  that  shall 
surpass  in  speed  and  power  anything  yet  built.  You 
cast  the  drive  wheels  twenty  feet  high.  You  build  the 
boiler  a  hundred  feet  long,  and  strong  enough  to  bear 
a  thousand  pounds  to  the  square  inch.  Everything  else 
is  on  the  same  gigantic  scale.  You  have  calculated  that 
engine  will  pull  twenty  loaded  passenger  cars  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  an  hour.  It  is  all  finished.  You  bring 
a  skilled  engineer  to  give  his  opinion.  He  looks  at  the 
lofty  smoke-stack  and  immense  boiler  with  a  smile  of 
satisfaction.  Examines  the  mammoth  steam  chests  and 
cylinders  and  pistons  with  increasing  delight.  His  face 
glows  with  honest  pride  as  he  thinks  he  is  to  mount  the 
engineer's  perch  and  handle  that  mighty  throttle.  He 
looks  at  the  drive  wheels  and  a  cloud  comes  over  his 


28 


face.  He  peers  into  the  cab  and  the  cloud  deepens. 
''What  is  the  matter?"  you  ask.  ''Well,  sir,  your 
engine  is  very  pretty,  but  it  is  good  for  nothing.  It  is 
big  enough,  and  pretty  enough,  and  powerful  enough  to 
do  all  you  expect  it  to  do;  but  it  has  neither  flanges  on  the 
drive  wheels,  reverse  bar,  nor  brakes.  Without  flanges 
you  can  not  keep  it  on  the  track;  and  without  reverse 
bar  and  brakes  you  could  never  stop  the  thing  if  once  it 
got  to  going.  I  would  not  ride  on  it  a  half  mile  if  you 
would  give  it  to  me." 

This  is  what  you  have  done  with  a  man  if  you  stop 
his  education  with  his  body  and  mind;  you  have  built 
a  beautiful  machine  of  tremendously  increased  power; 
but  an  unmanageable,  uncertain  thing  that  you  can  not 
depend  upon  keeping  the  track.  An  engine  that  will 
jump  the  track  is  only  more  dangerous  at  every  increase 
of  power  you  give  it;  and  so  it  is  with  man.  A  fearful 
thing  it  is  to  see  a  locomotive  leap  from  the  rails  and 
dash  down  an  embankment  dragging  behind  it  cars 
loaded  with  human  beings.  Infinitely  worse  is  it  to 
see  a  bright,  vigorous  man  off  the  track,  dashing  down- 
ward toward  the  bottomless  pit,  dragging  behind  him  a 
host  of  friends  who  regarded  him  as  a  model.  It  is  a 
fine  thing  to  increase  the  calibre  of  your  guns  and  the 
weight  of  ball  they  will  carry;  but  is  it  so  fine  if  the 
heavier  artillery  is  to  be  turned  against  you  ?  Do  you 
not  value  a  rifle  ball  fired  for  you,  more  than  a  hundred 
ton  cannon  ball  fired  against  you  ?  Increase  the  calibre 
and  power  as  much  as  you  will,  but  be  sure  the  gun 
will  shoot  for  us. 

Here  is  a  lawyer  of  masterly  intellect,  and  wonderful 
eloquence.     What  a  power  he  might  be  for  justice  and 


29 


the  right!  But  he  bends  every  energy  of  his  great  mind 
to  defeat  justice  and  shield  crime.  Would  it  not  be  bet- 
ter if,  like  Samson,  his  locks  were  shorn  ?  Here  is  a 
physician  of  wondrous  skill.  How  much  he  might  do  to 
alleviate  suffering!  He,  however,  stoops  to  use  all  his 
skill  in  the  aid  of  secret  vice.  Would  it  not  have  been 
manifold  better  if  he  had  never  learned  the  use  of  medi- 
cine? Here  is  a  preacher,  who  uses  all  his  powers  of 
analytical  skill  to  overthrow  the  very  doctrines  he  had 
vowed  to  sustain.  He  was  polished  that  he  might  shine 
among  the  giants  of  the  Lord;  but  all  his  powers  of  elo- 
quent denunciation  he  ranges  against  those  he  was  pledged 
to  assist;  and  fights  against  the  only  light  that  tends  to 
drive  the  darkness  from  this  dark  world.  Were  it  not 
better  had  he  never  received  this  higher  training  ? 

Something  then  is  needed  to  keep  the  man  on  the  track 
— something  that  shall  guide  him  in  the  right  path. 
What  is  that  something  ?  It  is  the  highest  form  of  edu- 
cation, it  is 

III.     Soul  Education;  Religion,  if  you  please. 

The  Master  said:  "Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  His  righteousness  ;  and  all.  these  things  shall  be 
added  unto  you."  The  text  declares:  "Behold,  the 
fear  of  the  Lord  that  is  wisdom;  and  to  depart  from  evil 
is  understanding." 

This  is  the  highest  form  of  education,  it  is  the  essen- 
tial part  of  education.  This  grade  of  culture,  and  this 
only,  will  fit  a  man  for  greatest  happiness  for  himself; 
and  this  means,  making  him  most  serviceable  to  others. 
It  matters  not  so  much  what  a  man  is  physically  or  men- 


30 


tally;  but  the  all-important  question  is,  what  is  he  spir- 
itually ?  Education  to  be  complete  must  develope  char- 
acter, and  the  right  kind  of  character.  The  model  is 
sketched  by  divine  inspiration  in  2  Peter,  i.  5-7:  "Add 
to  your  faith  virtue;  and  to  virtue  knowledge;  and  to 
knowledge  temperance;  and  to  temperance  patience;  and 
to  patience  godliness;  and  to  godliness  brotherly  kind- 
ness; and  to  brotherly  kindness  charity." 

Here  is  your  model  man.     He  believes  in  Grod  as  the 
very  foundation  stone  of  his  whole  character.     He  not 
only  has  living  faith  in  God,  but  he  has  virtue,  true  man- 
liness.    He  is  a  manly  man,  honest,  brave  and  true.     Not 
this  only,  for  he  has  knowledge — a  cultured  mind  stored 
with  learning  of  men  and  wisdom  of  God.      He  is  also 
temperate — in  eating,  in  drinking,  in  his  words,  in  his 
acts;  temperate,  not  rash.     In  him  we  find  the  charming 
grace  of  patience;  not  brusque,  nor  peevish,  nor  cross; 
but  able  to  bear  the  ills  of  life  with  quiet,  cheerful  spirit, 
without  showing  teeth  and  claws.     He  is  also  one  who 
takes  God  for  his  life  example — he  seeks  godliness,  god- 
like-ness.     He  endeavors  to  think  the  thoughts  of  God, 
to  do  the  acts  of  God,  to  live  the  life  his  God  would  live. 
Yet,  while  thus  communing  with  the  great  Jehovah,  he 
never  forgets  that  about  him  are  the  weak  and  sinful.     It 
is  easy  to  love  a  being  of  infinite  tenderness  and  goodwill 
like  our  God;  but  it  takes  a  deal  of  grace  to  love  poor, 
erring,  sinning  men  all  about  us.     This  model  man  is 
equal  to  the  task.     He  shows  kindness  to  his  brethren, 
whether  of  family,  church  or  society.     His  kindness  flows 
from  a  heart  warm  with  love  for  his  brethren.     Nor  is  it 
all.     A  man  may  love  those  of  his  own  blood,  or  those 


31 


with  whom  he  daily  mingles;  and  yet  be  far  from  loving 
those  who  are  not  congenial  in  tastes,  doctrines  or  man- 
ners. This  model  man  is  able  to  take  this  last  step  in 
the  ascending  scale,  and  reaches  the  higher  plane  of  cha- 
rity, love  for  all  men.  He  can  reach  up  to  those  above 
him  in  wealth  and  rank  without  feeling  envy,  and  reach 
down  to  the  lowest  in  life  or  rank  without  feeling  pride. 
Here  we  have  the  type  of  manhood  to  which  we  should 
all  aspire. 

Now,  what  part  of  the  college  curriculum  is  especially 
adapted  to  develope  that  kind  of  man  ?  Shall  it  be  re- 
ferred to  the  classical  department  ?  It  is  not  there  espe- 
cially taught.  To  the  mathematical?  The  professor 
will  tell  you  he  is  paid  to  teach  mathematics,  not  creeds 
and  religion.  Will  the  department  of  natural  science 
furnish  the  kind  of  spiritual  education  needed  to  develope 
such  a  man?  No;  their's  is  the  realm  of  matter,  not 
spirit.  Do  you  say  the  churches  are  to  furnish  such  edu- 
cation ?  The  churches  can  do  little  unless  the  college 
be  a  denominational  one.  If  it  be  a  denominational  col- 
lege of  course  the  church  of  that  denomination  will  see 
to  the  spiritual  instruction  of  the  students;  but  if  it  be  a 
state  institution  or  a  non-sectarian  college  the  case  is 
different.  Having  no  church  establishment  in  this  coun- 
try, a  state  or  non-sectarian  college  is  virtually  beyond 
the  reach  of  all  the  churches,  as  such.  A  non-sectarian 
college  should  be  one  in  which  all  the  denominations 
patronizing  it  should  have  systematic  spiritual  services 
and  instruction  in  regular  succession,  alternating  with 
each  other.  Such  services  should  be  free  from  all  denom- 
inational bias  and  peculiarities ;  and  the  instruction  should 


be  free  from  all  denominational  cant.  But  unless  such 
regular  work  is  systematically  carried  on,  in  which  all  the 
denominations  share  equally  and  honorably,  what  then  ? 

Then  no  denomination  is  at  liberty  to  enter  the  college 
precincts  with  its  own  sectarian  way.  The  Methodists 
have  no  more  right  to  hold  a  service  that  is  purely  Meth- 
odistic  than  the  Roman  Catholics  have  to  celebrate  the 
Mass.  The  Presbyterians  have  no  more  right  to  preach 
Calvinism,  nor  the  Baptists  to  have  an  immersion  service 
in  college,  than  the  Protestant  Episcopalians  would  have 
to  teach  apostolic  succession,  or  to  coach  candidates  for 
confirmation.  The  churches  then,  as  such,  have  no  author- 
ity to  enter  the  college  precincts  even  upon  their  holy 
mission.  To  allow  all  denominations  to  enter  and  teach 
their  peculiar  views  would  cause  endless  confusion.  To 
allow  any  one  to  enter  upon  such  a  mission  is  not  only 
denominational  discourtesy,  but  it  is  not  fair  play.  De- 
nominational lines  must  cease  at  the  entrance  to  the 
campus.     Inside  all  must  be  individual  Christians  only. 

Then  how  shall  this  part  of  one's  education,  the  high- 
est, the  most  important  part,  be  taught  ?  By  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  of  the  college.  This  is  their 
special  work ;  and  if  not  done  by  them  it  will  not  be  done 
at  all.  The  young  men  who  join  this  organization  are 
Christians  of  all  the  denominations  in  the  college.  Here 
they  stand  upon  the  same  platform,  irrespective  of 
churchly  ties.  It  is  their  duty  to  hold  up  this  Bible 
standard  of  manhood  by  every  means  in  their  power — 
teaching  it  by  word  and  living  example.  To  do  this 
most  effectually  they  must  seek  to  arouse  an  interest  in 
the  study  of  the  Bible,  and  faith  in  its  teachings. 


33 


It  seems  a  strange  anomaly  that  in  this  so-called  Chris- 
tian land  so  few  of  the  colleges  have  any  place  in  their 
curriculum  for  the  study  of  this  hook  of  hooks,  the  Bihle. 
If  the  history  of  our  country  teaches  us  anything  it  is 
that  the  Bihle  is  the  rock  on  which  our  civil  and  religious 
institutions  are  founded.  Our  fathers  helieved  in  the 
Bible,  claimed  the  God  of  the  Bible  as  their  God;  appealed 
to  Him  in  hours  of  darkness  for  help,  and  in  their  brighter 
hours  praised  Him  for  the  help  afforded.  Besides,  the 
very  name  of  the  book  shows  its  importance.  In  all  lan- 
guages and  by  all  peoples  it  is  called  ''the  Bible,"  "The 
Book."  Christian  and  infidel,  pagan,  saint,  and  sinner 
all  call  it  "the  Book;"  thus  testifying  that  it  is  "the  Book" 
of  prime  importance.  Yet,  it  is  a  sad  fact,  that  many 
of  our  college  students  are  graduated  who  have  less  know- 
ledge of  the  Bible  than  almost  any  book  in  polite  litera- 
ture. They  have  spent  a  year  in  studying  the  manners 
and  customs  of  the  Komans,  and  another  year  on  those  of 
the  Greeks;  but  they  have  never  spent  an  hour  in  study- 
ing the  history  of  that  people  who  were  chosen  of  God  to 
keep  alive  true  knowledge  of  Him.  Caesar  and  Seneca, 
Pericles  and  Socrates  they  know;  but  they  know  not  Noah 
and  Abraham,  Jacob  and  Elijah.  They  are  taught  to 
appreciate  the  beauties  and  musical  rhythm  of  Homer  and 
Sophocles;  but  not  a  word  said  of  those  grand  lyrics  of 
David,  the  glowing  imagery  of  Isaiah,  or  the  weird  gran- 
deur of  the  Apocalypse.  The  laws  of  Draco  and  Lycur- 
gus  must  be  mastered;  while  the  laws  of  Moses  are  not 
discussed  in  English,  much  less  translated  from  the  origi- 
nal. They  must  wade  through  the  slums  of  Rome  with 
Juvenal,  and  be  familiar  with  Scott  and  Shakspeare  and 
3 


34 


Dryden,  or  they  can  not  get  their  diploma;  but  they  may 
never  have  heard  of  the  New  Jerusalem  and  its  glories, 
nor  of  Paul,  nor  of  Stephen,  nor  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and 
yet  they  are  allowed  to  lead  their  class.  The  consequence 
is  that  many  young  men  who  come  to  college  Christians, 
or  at  least  believers  in  God  and  the  Bible,  during  their 
four  years  course  hear  them  so  seldom  mentioned,  and 
then,  perhaps,  only  to  be  criticized  for  imaginary  mis- 
takes, that  they  come  to  regard  the  Bible  as  only  good  to 
supply  mothers  with  nursery  stories;  but  for  full  grown 
men  it  is  behind  the  times.  All  this  because  he  has  not 
been  trained  in  Bibl«  lore  as  he  has  in  scientific  and 
classical  lore.  In  science,  art,  and  history  he  has  been 
developed  from  the  boy  to  the  man;  but  in  the  Bible  he 
remains  the  same  ignorant  child;  and  as  these  learned 
men  about  them  seem  to  care  little  or  nothing  about  these 
things,  the  student  learns  to  regard  the  Bible  and  religion 
in  much  the  same  light  as  the  Arabian  Nights  and  the 
hobgoblin  stories  of  childhood. 

What  would  a  learned  Hindoo  think,  coming  from  his 
land  where  their  holy  books  form  such  an  important 
part  of  the  curriculum  in  their  schools — what  would  he 
think  when  he  found  our  holy  book  was  not  taught  at 
all  nor  recognized  as  any  part  of  the  course  of  study 
necessary  to  a  Christian  education  ?  What  would  a  cul- 
tured Arab  think,  who  had  been  compelled  to  pore  over 
the  Koran  so  long  before  he  was  regarded  as  educated ; 
what  would  he  think  on  visiting  scores  of  our  principal 
colleges,  to  find  that  in  Christian  education  Christ  and 
His  word  formed  no  part  ?  Is  it  not  a  shame  on  us  as 
Christians  that  these  things  are  so  ? 


35 


Here,  then,  is  a  great  work  for  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  of  every  college  in  the  land;  to  do  all 
they  can  to  have  the  Bible  systematically  taught  in  their 
colleges,  just  as  other  branches  of  learning  are  taught. 
Petition  the  faculty  and  trustees  to  provide  means  that 
you  may  be  taught,  yea,  thoroughly  taught  the  heavenly 
wisdom  of  this  most  wonderful  book.  I  am  glad  to  note 
the  wide-spread  interest  exhibited  by  some  of  our  colleges 
along  this  line  of  study.  May  God  hasten  the  day  when 
the  Bible  shall  have  a  foremost  place  in  every  curriculum ! 

Do  you  ask  why  I  am  so  much  in  earnest  about  this  ? 
Because  the  Bible  is  "the  book"  in  fact,  as  well  as  in 
name.  There  are  three  questions  that  are  of  most  vital 
importance  to  every  human  being :  Whence  am  I  ?  What 
am  I  ?  Whither  am  I  going  ?  To  these  three  questions 
the  Bible,  and  the  Bible  only,  furnishes  a  reasonable 
answer. 

I.  The  Bible  gives  us  the  only  reasonable  origin  of 

MAN. 

No  doubt  some  of  you  may  think  I  am  now  treading 
on  dangerous  ground.  I  want  to  be  understood  as  say- 
ing that  the  origin  of  man  as  given  in  Genesis  stands  on  a 
more  secure  footing  to-day,  than  it  has  ever  stood.  There 
has  been  quite  a  stir  in  both-  theological  and  scientific 
circles  about  the  first  three  chapters  of  Genesis.  Within 
the  present  century  there  has  been  some  pretty  loud  brag- 
ging as  to  the  havoc  scientific  knowledge  was  about  to 
make  with  our  Bible  account  of  creation.  Many  learned 
theologians  seemed  to  lose  heart,  and  hastened  to  meet 
the  so-called  new  scientists  to  arrange  terms  of  capitu- 


36 


lation,  lest  the  Bible  should  come  oiF  defeated.  What 
is  the  result?  The  battle  has  been  fought,  the  smoke 
is  lifting,  the  debris  is  being  cleared  away,  and  we  find 
that  there  is  no  contradiction  between  science  and  revelation  ; 
they  are  parts  of  one  whole.  The  newest  revelations  of 
science  only  strengthen  the  bulwarks  of  our  Zion,  and 
lead  to  a  clearer  knowledge  of  what  the  Bible  really  does 
teach. 

There  are  two  explanations  or  accounts  of  creation, 
and  only  two,  that  receive  any  special  attention  by  the 
thinking  men  of  to-day,  the  materialistic  and  the  biblical. 
Both  of  these  are  evolution  theories.  An  outline  of  the 
two  may  aid  you  in  seeing  just  how  the  matter  stands. 

There  are  many  various  shades  of  doctrines  among  the 
materialistic  evolutionists;  in  fact  it  is  difficult  to  find 
two  who  agree;  but  in  the  main  their  theory  may  be 
sketched  thus: 

They  start  with  a  universe  of  matter;  for  matter  with 
them  is  eternal.  This  universe  of  homogeneous,  chaotic 
matter  somehow,  during  the  lapse  of  ages,  manages  to 
resolve  itself  into  the  various  forms  of  solid,  liquid,  and 
gaseous.  Ages  pass,  and  this  dead  matter  learns  how 
to  transform  itself  into  living  matter,  or  protoplasm. 
This  protoplasm,  or  bioplasm  (both  are  used  interchange- 
ably), which  is  only  the  simplest  form  of  a  vegetable  cell, 
somehow,  after  untold  ages  transforms  itself  into  vari- 
ous grades  of  vegetable  life.  Another  era  of  ages  passes, 
and  it  determines  it  will  change  itself  into  an  animal; 
and  so  it  does.  Beginning  with  the  protozoans,  it  gets 
more  and  more  ambitious  until  it  changes  itself  into  a 
radiate,  then  an  articulate,  then  into  a  vertebrate;  and 


37 


then,  after  running  the  whole  gamut  of  the  vertebrates, 
finally  becomes  man,  the  king  of  creation.  So  begin- 
ning with  (lead  matter,  a  universe  of  it,  these  wise  men 
can  build  us  the  entire  universe,  even  up  to  man.  On 
what  is  the  whole  theory  founded  ?  On  the  imagination 
of  its  authors!  The  very  facts  of  science,  of  which  they 
so  fondly  boast,  are  all  against  them.  No  scientific  in- 
vestigator has  ever  been  found  who  says  he  has  discovered 
how  dead  matter  becomes  living  substance.  After  years 
of  anxious  watching  and  most  careful  observation  over 
large  portions  of  the  earth's  surface,  no  one  has  ever 
found  where  one  species  of  animal  ever  changed  itself 
into  another  sjiecies.  Even  Haekel,  the  noted  German 
says,  ''Spontaneous  generation  is  a  thing  that  never  yet 
has  been  demonstrated;  but  it  must  be  accepted,  or  we 
shall  have  to  adopt  a  miracle  to  bring  about  the  neces- 
sary transformation."  Precisely;  and  that  is  just  what 
the  Christian  scientist  does. 

Compare  this  hypothetical  account  of  creation  with 
the  Bible  account.  Instead  of  starting  with  the  uni- 
verse of  dead  matter  it  starts  with  an  omnipotent,  omnis- 
cient being  who  is  called  God.  He  is  a  free,  voluntary 
agent  distinct  from  His  work.  By  His  inherent  power 
He  fashions  the  heavens  and  the  earth  according  to  His 
will.  His  creation  is  marked  by  three  distinct  periods. 
He  first  creates  matter.  When  that  is  created  He  pro- 
ceeds to  fashion  it;  dividing  the  heavens  from  the  earth, 
the  sea  from  the  land,  and  causes  flowers  and  grass  and 
trees  to  grow.  The  second  great  creation  is  when  He 
makes  living  animals — a  new  creation  here  separate  and 
distinct  from  anything  yet  made.     This  word  "create" 


38 


shows  that  God  in  ''creating"  animals  put  something 
new  in  the  universe ;  something  not  in  matter,  not  even  in 
organized  matter,  for  plants  were  organized.  Then  for 
the  third  time  that  word  ''  hara,"  ''create,"  comes  in,  in 
reference  to  the  creation  of  man.  "God  created  (hara) 
man  in  His  own  image;  in  His  own  image  created  {hara) 
He  them;  male  and  female  created  (hara)  He  them." 

Here  is  an  account  of  creation  which  is  not  only  vouched 
for  the  inspiration  of  God  as  Christians  believe;  which 
has  the  support  of  tradition  of  that  peculiar  people, 
the  Jews;  which  agrees  in  the  main  with  the  accounts 
of  the  most  primitive  peoples,  as  "the  Chaldeans,  the 
Phoenicians,  the  Egyptians,  the  Persians,  the  Indians, 
the  Chinese,  the  Karens,  the  Greeks,  the  Komans,  the 
Celts,  the  Scandinavians,  the  Finlanders,  the  Peruvians, 
the  Aztecs,  the  Algonquins,  &c. ;"  and  besides  all  this 
cumulative  traditionary  testimony,  is  confirmed  by  most 
persistent  scientific  research.  The  same  order  of  succes- 
sion given  in  Genesis  is  the  order  of  succession  given  by 
geology.  Here  is  progression,  here  is  evolution.  Not 
the  blind  evolution  of  dead  matter;  but  evolution  with 
a  sentient  evolver,  who  knows  He  wants  to  do,  and  does 
it.  When  He  desired  the  " wastiness  and  emptiness" 
of  chaos  to  be  filled  with  matter  He  calls  it  into  being. 
When  He  wants  that  disordered  matter  to  assume  shape 
He  speaks,  and  it  is  done.  When  he  wants  that  inor- 
ganic matter  to  organize  into  vegetable  life  He  organizes 
it.  When  He  wants  animals  to  move  on  land,  and  fishes 
to  swim  the  sea,  and  birds  to  fly  in  the  air.  He  speaks 
and  they  "swarm  with  swarms."  When  at  last  every- 
thing was  all  ready  for  him  for  whom  He  has  prepared  it, 


39 


He  fashions  man's  body  of  the  earth,  and  breathes  into 
his  nostrils  the  breath  of  lives,  and  man  becomes  a  living 
soul. 

The  one  system  makes  man  a  child  of  the  clod,  noth- 
ing more;  the  other  says,"  ''He  is  not  only  child  of  the 
clod,  but  also  the  child  of  Grod.  The  one  system  ascribes 
to  every  grain  of  sand,  every  drop  of  water,  every  mote 
in  the  atmosphere,  all  the  eternity,  wisdom  and  power 
that  we  ascribe  to  God.  Verily,  they  have  "Lords  many, 
and  Gods  many. "  Now  which  seems  to  you  the  more 
reasonable  origin  of  man:  that  of  a  few  men  calling 
themselves  scientists,  yet  who  on  their  own  admission 
have  failed  to  find  a  single  scientific  fact  on  which  to  base 
their  theory;  who  grant  all  this  power  and  wisdom  to 
dead  matter,  and  bow  down  and  worship  matter  as  their 
creator;  or,  that  of  the  Bible,  which  has  not  only  the  tra- 
ditional and  intrinsic  truth  of  its  own  inspired  record, 
but  the  cosmogonies  of  other  nations,  and  all  the  obser- 
vations of  science  to  confirm  the  truth  of  its  statements? 
Which  will  you  claim  for  your  ancestry:  the  ape  for  your 
father,  the  tadpole  for  your  grandfather,  and  the  clod  of 
the  earth  for  your  creator;  or,  will  you  claim  the  God- 
made  Adam  for  your  father,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  for  your 
brother,  and  the  God  of  heaven  for  your  creator?  Give 
me  the  divine  record,  with  its  ennobling,  exalting  inspi- 
rations, arising  from  our  divine  parentage. 

The  Bible  should  claim  our  thought  because 

II.  It,  only,  tells  us  what  we  now  are. 

The  Psalmist  but  voiced  the  soul  of  humanity,  of  hea- 
then, infidel,  pagan  and  Christian  when  he  asked,  ''What 


40 


is  man?"  There  is  no  book  in  the  world  but  the  Bible 
that  can  answer  that  question.  Read  science,  and  you 
find  man  is  an  animal.  Read  of  industry  and  art,  and 
you  conclude  man  is  a  working  animal.  Read  philology, 
and  man  is  a  talking  animal.  Read  history,  and  man  is 
a  fighting  animal.  Read  philosophy,  and  man  is  a  think- 
ing animal.  Read  poetry  and  romance,  and  man  is  a  lov- 
ing animal.  Read  theology,  and  man  is  a  worshipping 
animal.  So  you  may  travel  the  entire  circle  of  human 
learning  and  you  find  man  an  animal.  That  is  as  far  as 
human  wisdom  unaided  has  gone  or  can  go.  But  what 
you  have  thus  found  by  ranging  the  entire  field  of  litera- 
ture you  could  have  read  in  this  one  book,  the  Bible. 
More  than  that:  the  Bible  alone  tells  of  that  part,  or  nature 
of  man,  which  is  not  animal.  I  know  I  am  of  the  earth, 
earthy;  but  I  am  conscious  of  inner  aspirations  that  are 
not  earthy.  Whence  these  longings  for  higher  and  better 
and  holier  living?  Whence  this  craving  for  more  light, 
more  wisdom?  Yet  how  is  it  that  in  the  same  man  there 
are  low,  base  desires  and  appetites?  How  is  it  that  to-day 
man  is  pursuing  the  noble,  the  lofty,  the  pure,  the  good, 
striving  to  fashion  himself  according  to  the  divine  pattern ; 
and  to-morrow,  that  same  man  is  just  as  vigorously  en- 
gaged in  things  that  debase,  debauch,  and  destroy?  Yea, 
how  is  it  that  at  the  same  moment  in  the  same  breast  there 
is  found  a  desire  to  do  the  right  and  true,  and  a  counter 
desire  to  do  the  wrong  and  base? 

The  Bible  explains  this.  Man  was  created  in  the  image 
of  his  maker;  which  consisted  of  ''righteousness  and  true 
holiness."  So  while  man  was  an  animal  in  body  and 
soul,  in  spirit  (ffvgufjL*  )  he  was  like  his  God.     This  divine 


41 


element  or  nature  was  designed  to  rule  the  man;  and  it 
did  rule  until  man  sinned.  When  Adam  sinned  he  lost 
this  image  of  God.  His  xv«i;|x«,  or  spiritual  nature  lost 
its  grip  on  the  gviix  and  -^^vxh-  The  latter  ruled  instead 
of  the  former.  That  which  was  designed  to  he  master 
was  now  servant.  This  was  the  death  that  came  upon 
Adam.  His  hody  did  not  die,  his  animal  ■^Cxh  did  not 
die  ;  hut  his  wtv/*,*  separated  from  God  hy  sin,  was  no 
more  its  former  self  than  the  dead  man  is  like  the  live 
one. 

This  accounts  for  that  war  within  us,  which  Saint  Paul 
80  clearly  yet  pathetically  describes  in  Romans  VII. 
"For  that  which  I  do  I  allow  not:  for  what  I  would,  that 
do  I  not;  but  what  I  hate,  that  do  I.  *  *  *  For  the 
good  that  I  would  I  do  not;  but  the  evil  which  I  would 
not,  that  I  do.  *  *  *  For  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God 
after  the  inward  man:  but  I  see  another  law  in  my  mem- 
bers, warring  against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing 
me  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  mem- 
bers." Every  thoughtful  man  must  acknowledge  that 
the  apostle  has  here  portrayed  an  internal  experience  com- 
mon to  mankind.  Our  lives  are  not  what  we  desire  them 
to  be.  They  are  not  what  God  intended  them  to  be,  nor 
what  that  of  Adam  was  before  the  fall.  How  then  shall 
that  higher  life  be  regained,  the  life  in  which  the  <r»eufjL« 
reigns,  and  the  -^^^x^  ^^  brought  into  subjection?  Only 
by  a  spiritual  agony,  struggle,  change,  called  regenera- 
tion. The  Master  told  Nicodemus  "Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  you,  Ye  must  be  born  again."  No  wonder  Nico- 
demus  replied,  "How  can  a  man  be  born  when  he  is  old?" 
For  in  this  great  change  in  which  the  Bible  says  the  "old 


42 


man"  dies  and  we  become  ''new  creatures,"  literally  ''a. 
new  creation,"  what  in  man  is  so  completely  changed  as 
to  merit  such  strong  terms?  Not  his  body;  that  remains 
the  same.  Not  his  ^Cx*)  animal  life  or  soul;  that  remains 
the  same.  Then  what  is  changed,  or  added  to  him,  or 
taken  from  him  that  is  worthy  of  being  called  a  new  birth? 
It  is  the  resurrection  of  this  dead  irysZ^x,  this  essence  of 
divinity  given  him  at  creation  and  lost  through  the  fall; 
and  not  a  resurrection  merely,  but  a  placing  it  on  the 
throne  of  the  man's  mind,  will,  and  affections.  The  reign 
of  the  usurping  -^^x^  i^  ended,  and  the  reign  of  the  irveufju* 
begins.  This  is  new  life,  yea  the  only  true,  full  life  for 
man.  This  is  what  the  Master  meant  when  He  said,  "I 
am  come  that  ye  might  have  life;  and  that  ye  might  have 
it  more  abundantly. "  Young  men,  seek  this  higher  life! 
Again,  the  pre-eminence  of  the  Bible  is  shown  in  the 
fact  that 

III.  It  alone  teaches  man's  destiny. 

It  is  said  of  Buddha,  that  when  quite  a  young  man,  he 
was  walking  through  the  princely  gardens  when  he  met 
a  funeral  procession.  On  the  bier  lay  the  wrapped  corpse 
of  an  infant ;  and  behind  the  bier  followed  the  young  father 
and  mother,  bemoaning  the  loss  of  their  first  born.  The 
great  heart  of  Buddha  was  touched.  He  withdrew  to  his 
private  chamber  and  meditated  upon  what  he  had  seen. 
''Is  this  life?  to  be  cut  off  in  infancy,  like  a  tender  bud, 
before  the  petals  have  been  allowed  to  bloom?  To  kill 
the  nestling  before  it  has  tried  its  wings?  To  quench  the 
fire  before  the  flame  is  kindled. "  And  he  pondered  these 
things  in  his  heart. 


43 


Again  Buddha  goes  forth  for  a  walk  amid  the  trees  of 
the  garden;  and  lo,  another  funeral  procession!  This 
time  the  corpse  is  that  of  a  beautiful  young  bride;  and 
following  the  bier  is  her  handsome  young  husband  wail- 
ing with  breaking  heart  the  anguish  that  is  crushing  him. 
And  Buddha  retires  to  his  private  chamber  to  meditate. 
*'Is  this  life?  To  be  allowed  to  reach  full  age  only  to  be 
cut  off?  To  be  offered  the  cup  of  joy  only  to  have  it 
dashed  from  our  hand  as  we  raise  it  to  our  lips?"  And 
Buddha  pondered  these  things  in  his  heart. 

For  the  third  time  Buddha  goes  forth  for  a  walk  amid 
the  trees  of  the  garden ;  and  lo,  for  the  third  time  a  fune- 
ral procession!  This  time  upon  the  bier  lies  the  form  of 
an  old  man,  wrinkled  with  age,  his  scattering  locks  frosted 
with  the  snows  of  many  years;  and  no  mourners  follow 
the  bier.  And  again  Buddha  retires  for  meditation:  '^Is 
this  life?  To  live  on,  while  wife  and  children  die?  To 
live  on,  until  friends  are  dead?  To  live  on,  until  unknown 
and  unloved,  stranger  hands  must  bear  us  to  the  tomb?" 
And  with  soul  darkened  by  what  his  eyes  had  seen  Buddha 
goes  forth  to  preach  "Life  is  a  burdensome  curse." 

I  am  not  surprised.  In  my  pastoral  work  I  see  so  much 
of  suffering,  so  much  of  sorrow,  so  much  of  innocence 
suffering  for  the  guilty,  so  much  of  weakness  oppressed 
by  strength,  so  much  of  poverty  ground  down  by  wealth, 
so  much  of  the  good  persecuted  by  the  bad,  that  my  heart 
grows  sick  within  me.  I  can  but  ask  myself  "Is  this  life? 
to  labor,  and  toil,  and  suffer  for  three  score  years  and  ten, 
and  then  be  carried  to  the  Potter's  field,  unwept  and  un- 
loved? If  so,  no  wonder  Job  cursed  the  day  of  his  birth, 
and  so  many  daily  by  poison,  knife  and  fatal  plunge 
'jump  the  life  to  come.'  " 


44 

But  is  this  all?     To 

"Bear  the  whips  and  scorns  of  time, 
The  oppressor's  wrong,  the  proud  man's  contumely, 
The  pangs  of  despis'd  love,  the  law's  delay, 
The  insolence  of  office,  and  the  spurns 
That  patient  merit  of  the  unworthy  takes?" 

No,  no!  Turn  to  this  dear  old  Book.  Read  its  pre- 
cious pages.  Man  was  not  made  to  suffer,  and  to  die.  He 
was  made  to  be  eternal,  and  to  be  eternally  happy;  and 
in  his  happiness  to  glorify  God.  This  book  declares  that 
sin  brought  suffering  and  death  into  this  world;  and  that 
all  the  sorrow  and  pain  we  see  to-day  is  caused  by  sin. 
It  was  to  save  us  from  the  guilt  and  power  of  sin  that 
"God  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  be- 
lieveth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life."  It  teaches  us  it  is  the  will  of  our  Creator  that  all 
men  should  be  saved.  This  life  is  only  the  beginning  of 
life.  What  we  call  death  is  only  an  open  door  that  opens 
into  eternity;  and  this  whole  life  is  given  us  as  a  prepa- 
ratory school  for  that  eternal  life  beyond.  In  that  eternal 
world  are  two  abodes.  One  is  the  place  of  eternal  pun- 
ishment. It  was  not  made  for  man,  but  for  the  devil  and 
his  angels.  God  warns  us  to  shun  that  place  of  woe.  By 
most  solemn  appeals  and  by  picturing  its  horrors  in  most 
terrible  imagery,  He  warns  the  sons  of  men  to  shun  that 
death  that  never  dies;  and  tells  us  plainly  that  only  those 
who  wilfully  choose  to  serve  Satan  in  this  life  shall  finally 
be  made  to  dwell  with  Satan. 

The  lost,  however,  fail  of  their  true  destiny.  Man 
was  ordained  to  life.     His  love  for  life  is  divine;  and 


45 


''all  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  life."  So  all  who 
learn  the  lessons  of  life  assigned  them  by  God  while  in 
this  preparatory  school  are  promised  glorious  promotion. 
.  The  lessons  may  be  difficult  sometimes.  Sometimes  they 
are  "great  tribulation,"  sometimes  deepest  sorrows, 
sometimes  most  painful  afflictions;  yet  to  all  who  learn 
the  lessons  of  life,  death  is  but  a  door  opening  into  an 
eternal  city  whose  streets  are  gold,  whose  walls  are  jas- 
per, whose  gates  are  pearl,  whose  inhabitants  are  never 
weary,  nor  sick,  nor  sad,  whose  streets  and  palaces  are 
lighted  by  the  countenance  of  the  Lamb  of  God,  whose 
king  is  the  God  of  Glory.  This  city  of  eternal  life  is 
designed  for  all  men,  and  all  men  may  have  it  for  their 
eternal  home  by  simply  choosing  God  as  their  master 
here,  and  living  in  accordance  with  His  will. 

The  Bible  represents  man  as  a  pilgrim,  with  staff  in 
hand,  toiling  slowly  along  a  foot  path  on  a  steep  moun- 
tain side.  Above  him  towers  the  massive  granite  peak, 
pile  on  pile,  until  lost  in  the  clouds  of  heaven.  Below 
him  are  crags,  and  precipice,  and  forests  of  pine  and  oak, 
until  the  far-a-way  base  is  hidden  by  the  gray  mists  of 
the  valley.  The  pilgrim  reaches  a  point  where  the  path 
divides — one  leading  by  gentle  windings  down  the  moun- 
tain; the  other,  straight  and  narrow,  leading  upward. 
He  halts,  hesitating  which  to  take.  Now  he  hears  voices, 
whispering  in  his  ear:  "Come,  go  with  us.  Our  home  is 
at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  and  you  will  not  have  to  climb 
that  horrid  hill.  Our  path  is  easy  to  travel — it  slopes 
downward  all  the  time.  You  can  do  as  you  please  in 
this  path,  and  not  get  out  of  it;  for  it  is  very  broad. 
We  have  wine  and  refreshments  at  every  turn  of  the  path. 


46 


Come  go  with  us.  This  is  the  popular  way.  The  whole 
world  goes  this  way."  But  the  pilgrim  hears  voices  in 
his  other  ear:  "Come  go  with  us.  It  is  true  the  path  is 
narrow;  but  it  is  so  plain  that  '  a  way-faring  man,  though 
a  fool,  need  not '  lose  his  way.  It  leads  up  hill,  it  is  true; 
but  we  will  help  you  climb  it;  and  our  king,  who  lives  at 
the  summit,  always  gives  strength  to  the  weak  when  they 
are  climbing.  Then  too,  at  every  step  new  beauties  will 
unfold.  Every  ridge,  as  you  ascend,  will  furnish  you  a 
more  extended  view.  When  we  pass  through  the  cloud 
we  will  find  the  land  of  Beulah  where  the  sun  is  always 
shining;  and  when  we  reach  the  city  at  the  summit  our 
King  himself  will  come  out  to  welcome  you,  together  with 
a  host  of  saints  and  angels.  They  will  welcome  you  with 
songs  and  shouts,  and  escort  you  to  a  mansion  that  is 
already  prepared  for  you  there.     Come,  come  with  us." 

Here  is  the  choice  that  settles  our  eternal  destiny. 
The  voices  of  God,  and  Duty,  and  truest  Happiness  ex- 
horting the  Pilgrim  to  eternity  to  climb;  and  the  voices 
of  Satan,  and  his  servants,  and  appetites  persuading  him 
to  take  the  popular  path,  because  it  leads  down  hill.  Oh, 
young  man  !  which  path  are  you  treading  ? 

This,  then,  is  the  outline  of  what  the  Bible  teaches: 
the  divine  origin  of  man,  his  true  present  condition,  his 
true  future  destiny.  This  is  the  teaching,  young  men  of 
the  Association,  you  are  to  bring  before  your  fellow-stu- 
dents day  by  day.  In  order  to  teach  this,  live  it.  But 
do  not  assume  any  sanctimonious  airs.  Don't  whine. 
Don't  talk  through  your  nose.  You  will  never  win  a 
College  boy  that  way.  They  hate  cant;  but  they  appre- 
ciate genuine  piety,  and  will  respect  the  true,  manly, 
Christian  student. 


47 


''But  they  will  not  believe.  College  boys  want  some- 
thing more  real  before  they  will  believe."  More  real? 
Can  anything  be  more  real  than  spiritual  phenomena  ? 
The  teachings  of  the  Bible  are  much  more  easy  for  me 
to  believe  than  the  teachings  of  science.  In  fact,  I  can 
conceive  of  no  greater  test  of  credulity  than  to  believe 
the  teachings  of  our  present  systems  of  science.  Don't 
talk  to  me  about  spiritual  things  being  hard  to  believe, 
A  man  that  can  believe  in  modern  science  can  believe  in 
anything, 

.  Take  chemistry.  The  whole  science  of  chemistry  is 
based  upon  the  atomic  theory.  What  is  that  theory  ? 
That  all  existing  matter  is  made  up  of  less  than  serventy 
elementary  substances;  and  that  these  elementary  sub- 
stances are  made  up  of  individual  particles  so  small  that 
they  can  not  be  divided,  called  atoms.  This  atom  no  man 
has  ever  seen,  even  with  the  most  powerful  microscope. 
No  man  has  ever  weighed  it,  although  balances  are  made 
so  delicate  that  you  can  weigh  a  black  hair  and  a  gray 
one  from  the  same  head,  and  the  gray  one  will  kick  the 
beam.  Not  only  has  it  never  been  seen  nor  weighed;  but 
I,  for  one,  can  not  conceive  of  a  particle  so  small  that  it 
can  not  be  made  less.  I  can  not  conceive  that  a  whole 
atom,  and  a  half  atom,  and  a  millionth  part  of  an  atom 
are  all  the  same  size.  But  the  chemist  says  I  must  believe 
it,  whether  I  can  conceive  it  or  not.  And  this  imaginary 
something  called  an  atom,  which  has  never  been  seen  and 
can  not  be  weighed,  the  chemist  assumes  he  knows  its  size 
and  also  its  weight;  and  wants  me  to  believe  that  he  can 
tell  just  how  many  of  these  atoms  will  unite  with  another 
set  of  atoms  of  a  different  substance,  to  form  a  new  com- 


48 


pound.  Then  on  what  basis  does  our  whole  science  of 
chemistry  rest  ?  Upon  the  hypothesis,  and  only  an  hy- 
pothesis, that  there  are  atoms;  and  although  we  can  not 
see,  weigh,  nor  conceive  of  an  atom,  yet  that  we  know 
their  size  and  weight.  A  man  that  can  believe  that  can 
believe  anything. 

Turn  to  physics,  and  we  have  to  use  an  equal  amount  of 
credulity.  You  hear  the  Professor  lecturing  most  learn- 
edly about  light.  He  can  tell  you  a  thousand  things 
about  it:  its  wonderful  freaks,  its  seven  primary  colors, 
the  heat  and  actinic  rays,  its  laws  of  refraction  and  reflec- 
tion, its  speed  of  200,000  miles  a  second.  You  might 
imagine  he  knew  all  about  light;  but  ask  him  a  question 
or  two.  What  is  light  ?  He  will  probably  tell  you,  it 
is  the  vibration  of  a  luminiferous  ether  that  pervades  all 
space.  Then  ask  him.  What  is  this  ether,  and  what 
makes  it  vibrate  ?  Ah,  you  have  settled  him  now.  No 
scientist  ever  saw  an  atom  of  this  ether.  He  does  not 
even  know  that  such  a  thing  exists.  Yet,  without  know- 
ing there  is  such  a  thing  as  ether,  he  goes  on  to  tell  you 
that  there  is  ether,  that  it  vibrates,  that  he  can  measure 
a  vibration  to  the  ten-millionth  part  of  an  inch,  and  that 
758,840,000,000,000  of  these  vibrations  strike  my  eye 
every  second.  Does  the  Bible  ask  a  man  to  believe  any- 
thing more  utterly  unreasonable  than  that  ? 

It  is  the  same  with  heat,  magnetism,  electricity,  and 
gravitation.  No  man  has  ever  seen  these  things,  or  knows 
what  they  are,  or  whether  they  are  anything  at  all.  The 
whole  of  our  scientific  systems  is  built  upon  hypotheses 
or  assumptions.  We  have  the  phenomena;  and  with  all 
of   their    apparent   extravagances   and   absurdities  our 


49 


sciences  are  the  best  explanations  we  can  give  to  account 
for  the  phenomena.     So  we  believe  in  them. 

But  while  we  are  so  ready  to  believe  in  scientific  hypo- 
theses, why  are  some  so  ready  to  doubt  the  truths  of  the 
Bible? 

Talk  as  we  may,  there  are  spiritual  phenomena  in  this 
world  just  as  real  as  the  material  phenomena.  The  tes- 
timony is  clear.  Why  not  believe  the  man  when  he  testi- 
fies to  spiritual  phenomena  as  when  he  testifies  to  ma- 
terial phenomena? 

I  read  in  a  book  that  by  putting  a  piece  of  zinc  in  di- 
luted sulphuric  acid  a  gas  will  be  given  off,  called  hydro- 
gen. Certain  tests  are  given.  I  am  induced  to  try  the 
experiment.  I  get  my  acid,  dilute  it  as  directed,  and  put 
in  my  zinc.  At  once  the  liquid  begins  to  bubble.  I  do 
not  see  anything;  but  as  directed  I  hold  my  wide-mouthed 
bottle  over  the  escape  tube  a  little  while.  I  see  nothing 
in  the  bottle — I  feel  nothing  in  it.  It  is  just  as  it  was 
before  to  all  appearances ;  but  on  applying  a  match  to  the 
bottle  an  explosion  occurs.  Then  I  must  acknowledge 
that  one  test  given  by  the  book  is  true.  I  now  catch  the 
gas  in  a  difi'erent  shaped  vessel,  and  on  applying  the 
match,  find  it  burns  with  a  pale  blue  flame  and  intense 
heat.  So  I  run  through  every  test  named  in  the  book, 
and  prove  them  every  one.  I  do  not  now  hesitate  to  say 
the  book  is  true.  I  tell  my  friends  about  it.  They  test 
it  and  find  it  true  also.  No  one  now  doubts  the  state- 
ment of  the  author.  The  tests  have  been  verified,  and 
can  be  verified  by  any  one  who  desires  to  prove  them. 

I  read  in  another  book  of  certain  symptoms  of  mind 
and  body  which  denote  a  fatal  disease.  I  find  I  have  all 
4 


50 


the  symptoms  described.  The  book  goes  on  to  prescribe 
a  certain  course  of  treatment  by  which  one  so  diseased 
may  be  cured.  I  hasten  at  once  to  use  the  remedies.  It 
works  like  a  charm,  and  soon  I  am  well.  In  my  joy  at 
my  recovery  I  go  tell  my  friend  all  about  it,  both  the 
disease  and  the  cure.  He  says,  ''Why,  I,  too,  am  afflicted 
that  same  way.  You  say  it  cured  you?"  "Yes." 
"Then  I'll  try  it  too."  He  does,  and  is  cured.  So  are 
a  score  of  others  to  whom  we  tell  the  story.  It  is  now 
found  that  this  disease  is  universal.  In  fact,  the  book 
said  it  was.  What  a  demand  now  springs  up  for  the  book 
that  tells  of  a  cure  that  does  cure!  How  valuable,  even 
above  price,  is  now  the  book  of  healing! 

Now,  in  these  material  things  men  do  not  doubt;  or  if 
they  doubt,  they  still  lay  aside  doubts  sufficiently  to  test 
the  thing.  Why  then  should  they  doubt  in  spiritual 
things,  absolutely  refusing  to  test  them.  I  read  in  this 
book  (the  Bible)  that  certain  spiritual  phenomena  will 
take  place  under  certain  stated  conditions.  I  try  it,  and 
find  it  true.  I  bear  testimony  to  this  fact,  and  ask  you 
to  try  the  experiment  for  yourselves.  You  believed  me 
when  I  told  you  of  the  hydrogen  experiment,  and  proved 
it  for  yourselves.  Why  not  believe  me  in  this  spiritual 
case? 

I  read  in  this  book  that  there  is  a  terrible  disease  among 
men  called  sin.  I  find  I  have  all  the  symptoms  described. 
They  are  all  plainly  developed  in  my  case.  The  book 
that  describes  the  disease  tells  me  that  the  disease  brings 
death,  eternal  death,  unless  cured;  and  I  tremble  with 
terror.  I  read  on,  and  find  that  a  great  Physician  has 
prescribed  a  sure  cure  for  all  cases,  without  money,  and 


51 


without  price.  I  go  at  once  to  Him,  use  the  remedies  He 
prescribes,  and  soon  find  I  am  healed,  just  as  He  said  I 
would  be.  The  cure  is  wrought ;  and  I  know  it.  He 
said  that  I  should  be  a  new  creature.  I  feel  that  I  am. 
He  said  that  the  things  I  once  loved  I  would  hate.  It 
is  even  so.  He  said  the  things  that  I  once  hated  I  would 
love.  I  find  it  is  true.  He  said  that  hate,  envy,  malice, 
and  revenge  would  be  taken  from  me,  and  I  would  love 
everybody.  I  find  it  true.  He  said  that  a  great  peace 
would  spring  up  in  my  soul,  like  a  well  of  water,  or  as  a 
smoo.th-flowing  river.  It  is  true.  I  fully  realize  the  fact 
that  the  disease  is  gone,  and  my  health  is  recovered.  In 
my  joy  I  tell  my  friend.  He  tries  it,  and  finds  a  like  re- 
sult. We  two  tell  others.  Every  one  that  tries  it  finds 
it  to  be  true  in  every  particular.  The  good  news  spreads 
from  land  to  land,  from  nation  to  nation,  until  tens  of 
millions  of  all  peoples,  of  all  nations,  of  all  kindreds  and 
tongues,  rise  up  and  say  ''It  is  true.  Every  word  is  true. 
I  have  proved  it  for  myself.  Glory  to  Grod  in  the  highest 
for  this  great  salvation." 

This  is  no  stretch  of  imagination;  it  is  the  true  history 
of  this  God-given  book  for  the  past  nineteen  hundred 
years.  No  one  who  has  honestly  tried  it  has  ever  found 
it  false  in  a  single  particular.  Then  why  do  some  hold 
aloof  and  say,  "I  doubt  the  truth  of  that  book?"  It  is 
because  they  have  never  thoroughly  tested  it.  Many  of 
those  who  doubt  do  so  through  ignorance.  It  is  your 
part,  brethren  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
to  use  every  effort  to  dispel  such  ignorance  and  consequent 
doubt  from  among  your  associates  in  the  College. 


52 


Go  forward  then  to  hold  up  the  Bible  standard  of  holi- 
ness and  salvation.  Let  your  associates  see  that  true 
religion  is  a  practical  factor  in  daily  life.  Do  all  that 
you  can,  hy  word  and  example,  to  sow  the  good  seed  of 
eternal  life;  and  when  the  harvest  of  the  world  shall 
come,  and  the  angelic  reapers  shall  go  forth,  may  God 
grant  that  you  may  appear  before  the  Lord  of  the  harvest 
bearing  precious  sheaves,  as  the  result  of  your  piety  and 
fidelity  during  the  excitements  and  difficulties  of  the  days 
spent  in  the  halls  of  St.  John's.     Amen! 


%lwmx  Jag. 


The  morning  of  Wednesday  the  26th  of  June — Alumni 
Day — dawned  very  inauspiciously  for  a  celebration  in  the 
open  air.  But  to  the  great  relief  of  many  anxious  ones, 
before  the  hour  appointed  for  the  beginning  of  the  cere- 
monies, the  rain,  which  had  fallen  in  torrents,  ceased. 
Occasional  light  showers  fell  during  the  exercises,  but 
caused  no  interruption.  In  accordance  with  the  ceremony 
observed  at  the  formal  opening  of  the  College  in  1789, 
and  in  response  to  a  published  invitation,  members  of 
the  Board  of  Visitors  and  Governors,  members  of  the 
Faculty,  *Doctor  Fell  in  academic  costume,  and  numer- 
ous Alumni,  met  at  the  State  House  about  10  o'clock, 
and  under  the  escort  of  Students  of  the  College,  in  mili- 
tary uniform,  commanded  by  Lieut.  Mitchell  F.  Jamar, 
United  States  Army,  a  member  of  the  Faculty,  preceded 
by  the  United  States  Naval  Academy  Band,  marched  in 
procession  by  way  of  Maryland  Avenue  and  Prince  George 
Street  to  the  College  Campus,  where  under  a  large  mar- 
quee, provided  in  anticipation  of  an  assemblage  exceeding 
the  accommodation  of  McDowell  Hall,  and  erected  beneath 
the  sheltering  branches  of  the  Old  Poplar,  a  numerous 
audience  had  already  gathered.  A  suitable  platform, 
tastefully  decorated  with  bunting  and  flags,  had  been 


•The  Honorary  Degree  ol  LL.  D.  had  been  conferred  on  Principal  Fell  a  few  days 
before  by  Hampden  Sidney  College,  Virginia. 


54 


placed  adjoining  the  Old  Tree.  Governor  Jackson,  with 
other  members  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  and  Governors, 
members  of  the  Faculty,  and  others,  occupied  seats  on 
the  platform. 

Mr.  Frank.  H.  Stockett  of  the  Class  of  '41,  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Visitors  and  Governors,  presided. 
The  exercises  were  opened  with  the  following  prayer  by 
the  Eev.  Orlando  Hutton,  D.  D.,  of  the  Class  of  '34: 

Almighty  God,  the  Author  of  all  being,  and  the  fountain  of 
all  wisdom  and  knowledge;  who  hast  formed  our  bodies  and  en- 
dued us  with  reasonable  souls ;  regard  with  Thy  favor  and  visit  with 
Thy  blessing  this  Institution  established  for  the  promotion  of  sound 
learning  and  Christian  education. 

Give  Thy  holy  Light  for  illumination  and  guidance  to  Thy  ser- 
vants now  and  here  assembled  to  engage  in  mutual  counsels  and 
united 'efforts  for  the  advancement  of  the  high  and  noble  ends  for 
which  this  College  was  founded.  Animate  us  with  a  true  zeal  for 
Thy  Glory  and  an  earnest  purpose  to  promote  such  wise  measures 
as  will  conduce  to  the  welfare  of  this  College  which  has  been  to  us 
an  Alma  Mater  in  all  fostering  care  for  intellectual  culture  and 
moral  training. 

We  bless  Thy  Holy  Xame  that  under  Thy  Divine  Providence  this 
venerable  Institution  has  been  brought  through  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  past  to  celebrate  this  day,  under  happy  auspices,  the  Cente- 
nary of  its  foundation.  And  we  earnestly  pray  that  like  as  in  the 
past  distinguished  sons  have  gone  forth  from  these  walls  to  render 
honorable  service  to  their  country,  so  in  the  future  may  many  other 
sons  yet  go  forth  to  reflect  by  their  eminent  character  and  services 
like  honor  upon  their  Alma  Mater. 

Raise  up,  we  pray  Thee,  friends  and  patrons  to  enable  those 
charged  with  its  governorship  and  its  educational  work  to  carry 
into  effect  its  good  designs.  Inspire  all  who  are  officially  connected 
with  this  Institution  with  a  due  sense  of  their  solemn  trusts,  and 


55 


with  wisdom  and  strength  for  their  faithful  fulfilment.  And  may 
all  who  are  privileged  to  enjoy  the  educational  advantages  here 
provided,  have  the  docility  and  the  diligence  for  the  successful  pur- 
suit of  knowledge  and  the  ready  mind  to  follow  the  counsels  of 
Godly  wisdom  and  experience. 

Let  Thy  Protection  guard,  and  Thy  Blessing  rest  upon,  all  who 
are  gathered  here  in  these  commemoration  festivities.  May  all 
be  endued  with  the  spirit  to  seek  and  do  the  things  that  will  advance 
Thy  Glory  and  the  good  of  Thy  people  in  our  land.  All  which 
we  ask  in  the  Name  and  for  the  Sake  of  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord — Amen. 

A  chorus  of  fifty  voices,  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
George  H.  Shafer,  than  sang  to  the  air  of  "God  Save 
the  King,"  the  Band  accompanying,  the  following  Ode, 
written  for  the  occasion  by  Mr.  Nicholas  Brewer  of  the 
Class  of  '46. 

greeting  ta  St.  |o|n  s. 

All  hail !  St.  John's  to  thee ! 
Past  is  a  century 

Thy  natal  day, 
Since  from  yon  State  House  tall, 
The  Sons  of  "King  William's"  all 
To  Old  McDowell  Hall, 

Wended  their  way.* 

There  'neath  its  pillar'd  dome. 
Dreamed  in  their  student-home 
Sons  of  our  Sires ; 

*  For  an  account  of  this  procession,  see  Record  of  Proceedings  of  the  Visitors  and 
Governors  of  St.  John's  College. 


56 

There  plodded  side  by  side, 
In  sports  and  studies  vied, 
Worshipped  in  love  and  pride 
At  thy  altar  fires. 

All  hail !  Lov'd  College  Green ! 
Thy  sward  full  oft  hath  been 

Bed  of  the  brave. 
France  and  the  Father-Land  * 
Here  meeting,  hand  in  hand, 
March'd  forth,  a  gallant  band. 

Our  freedom  to  save. 

All  hail !  Thou  grand  old  tree, 
Emblem  of  Liberty  !  f 

Of  thee  we  sing. 
Here  'neath  thy  ample  shade, 
Oft  our  forefathers  strayed, 
And  we  in  boyhood  played. 

To  thee  we'll  cling. 

All  hail !  Old  College  bell ! 
Thy  silv'ry  tones  yet  swell 

O'er  Severn's  shore. 
Thy  call  we  now  obey, 
On  this  centennial  day, 
And  our  glad  homage  pay, 

As  in  days  of  yore. 

St.  John's  where'er  we  roam. 
To  thee  lov'd  College  home, 

Fondly  we  turn. 
Here  friends  of  early  years, 
Comrades  in  hopes  and  fears. 
Faithful  in  smiles  and  tears. 

Their  incense  burn. 

»  Beference  Is  here  had  to  La  Fayette,  Rochambeau,  De  Kalb,  and  Steuben. 
t  The  Old  Tulip  Poplar  Tree  was  once  lamiUarly  known  as  "  The  Liberty  Tree. 


5T 

Long  may  thy  courts  resound, 
Thy  halls  with  youth  ahound, 

As  in  days  past ! 
Thy  future  plenty  crown. 
Honors  thy  sorrows  drown, 
Heav'n  on  thy  foemen  frown, 

And  bless  thee  at  last ! 


Immediately  following  this,  there  was  sung  with  the 
same  accompaniment,  the  National  Anthem,  written  hy 
Francis  Scott  Key,  an  Alumnus  of  the  College  of  the 
Class  of  '96. 


Cljt  Star  ^pangto  §anntL 

O  SAY,  can  you  see,  by  the  dawn's  early  light, 
What  so  proudly  we  hailed,  at  the  twilight's  last  gleaming? 

Whose  broad  stripes  and  bright  stars  through  the  perilous  fight. 
O'er  the  ramparts  we  watched,  were  so  gallantly  streaming ; 

And  the  rockets'  red  glare,  the  bombs  bursting  in  air. 

Gave  proof  through  the  night  that  our  flag  was  still  there : 
O  say,  does  that  Star  Spangled  Banner  yet  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave? 


On  that  shore,  dimly  seen  through  the  mists  of  the  deep, 
Where  the  foe's  haughty  host  in  dread  silence  reposes. 

What  is  that  which  the  breeze,  o'er  the  towering  steep, 
As  it  fitfully  blows,  now  conceals,  now  discloses? 

Xow  it  catches  the  gleam  of  the  morning's  first  beam, 

In  full  glory  reflected,  now  shines  in  the  stream  : 

'Tis  the  Star  Spangled  Banner;  O  long  may  it  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave ! 


58 


And  where  are  the  foes  who  so  vauntingly  swore 
That  the  havoc  of  war,  and  the  battle's  confusion, 

A  home  and  a  country  should  leave  us  no  more : 
Their  blood  has  washed  out  their  foul  footsteps'  pollution  ; 

lHo  refuge  could  save  the  hireling  and  slave 

From  the  terror  of  flight,  or  the  gloom  of  the  grave ; 
And  the  Star  Spangled  Banner  in  triumph  doth  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave  ! 

O  thus  be  it  ever,  when  freemen  shall  stand 
Between  their  loved  homes  and  the  war's  desolation; 

Blest  with  victory  and  peace,  may  the  heav'n-rescued  land 
Praise  the  Power  that  hath  made  and  preserved  us  a  nation ! 

Then  conquer  we  must,  when  our  cause  it  is  just, 

And  this  be  our  motto,  "In  God  is  our  trust;" 

And  the  Star  Spangled  Banner  in  triumph  shall  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave ! 

Mr.  Frank.  H.  Stockett,  then  addressed  the  assem- 
blage as  follows  : 

Gentlemen  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  and  Governors 
OF  St.  John's  College:  Gentlemen  of  the  Faculty: 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

By  some  misapprehension,  or  oversight,  it  has  been 
published  that  an  address  was  to  be  delivered  by  me  to- 
day before  this  audience. 

There  was  no  such  understanding  on  my  part.  At  no 
time  did  I  ever  so  agree;  and  as  mutuality  is  essential  to 
the  validity  of  a  contract,  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  avail  my- 
self of  this  plea  to  save  you  from  any  such  infliction. 

If,  therefore,  you  have  by  reason  of  such  announcement, 
been  beguiled  into  the  expectation  of  any  such  treat,  you 
are  destined  to  go  away  disappointed. 


59 


Such  a  loss,  will  I  am  sure,  be  more  than  compensated 
by  the  intellectual  feast  to  be  supplied  by  those  who  are 
to  be  introduced  to  you  by  me. 

My  duties  are  much  simpler,  better  adapted  to  my  ac- 
quirements, and  more  considerate  to  you. 

They  are  merely  to  announce  the  occasion  of  your  being 
here  to-day,  and  to  present  to  you  those  who  are  to  furn- 
ish the  feast.  The  occasion  of  our  meeting  is  one  of  un- 
usual significance. 

It  is  to  honor  the  Centenary  of  old  St.  John's;  to  mani- 
fest our  veneration  and  love  for  an  Institution  that  has 
done  so  much  good  for  the  State,  and  has  been  of  such  in- 
calculable benefit  to  the  City  of  Annajpolis  in  particular. 

To  this  celebration  we  extend  to  you  a  most  sincere  and 
cordial  welcome. 

Mr.  Stockett,  at  the  close  of  his  address  of  welcome, 
presented  Mr.  Philip  Randall  Voorhees,  of  New  York, 
of  the  class  of  '55. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  Brothers  Alumni,  and  Stu- 
dents OF  Saint  John's, — When  the  Committee,  appointed 
to  arrange  a  programme  of  commemorative  ceremonies 
appropriate  to  the  Centenary  of  St.  John's  College,  re- 
quested me,  through  Principal  Fell,  to  prepare  and  deliver 
before  you,  as  part  of  said  programme  for  Alumni  Day,  a 
historical  sketch  of  the  College  I  felt  at  first  no  ordinary 
embarrassment.  Nevertheless,  impelled  by  a  sense  of 
duty,  I  promptly  accepted  the  honor  conferred.  But, 
though  painfully  conscious  then  of  my  lack  of  literary 
qualifications,  as  my  mind  dwelt  more  upon  the  subject 


60 


and  the  occasion,  and  as  I  refreshed  my  recollections  of 
St.  John's  antecedents  by  the  perusal  of  the  authorities  at 
my  command,  my  first  embarrassment  was  increased  ten- 
fold. I  can,  therefore,  only  pray  you  to  bear  patiently  the 
detention  which  I  shall  impose  upon  you,  by  covering  with 
the  mantle  of  your  charity  my  temerity  in  appearing 
before  you  in  any  other  capacity  than  that  of  a  hearer 
and  learner.  Were  it  not  that  the  task  assigned  me  is 
to  do  but  little  more  than  chronicle  in  one  paper,  in  as 
orderly  sequence  as  I  may,  events  which  have  been  more 
or  less  separately  or  segregatively  reviewed  before  you  at 
different  times,  I  could  not  have  consented  to  stand  here 
in  the  footsteps  of  those  Alumni,  and  others  distinguished 
in  letters,  who  have  in  such  numbers  heretofore  addressed 
audiences  such  as  this,  nor  to  break  silence  by  any  words 
of  mine,  while  mindful  of  the  stirring  eloquence  of  those 
who  have  so  often  urged  upon  the  people  of  the  State, 
and  their  representatives  in  General  Assembly,  the  merits 
of  this  venerable  institution  of  learning  and  its  claims  to 
their  fostering  care.  But  it  is  eminently  proper  that  a 
review  of  St.  John's  history  should  be  read  before  its 
sons  and  others  in  celebration  of  the  One  Hundredth 
Anniversary  of  its  natal  collegiate  day,  or,  more  correctly 
speaking  perhaps,  its  baptismal  day,  albeit  such  history 
is  so  well  known  by  its  alumni  present.  My  only  regret 
is,  therefore,  that  some  one  more  competent  to  do  the  full 
measure  of  justice  to  the  subject  should  not  have  been 
selected  for  the  historic  work  of  the  day. 

Bolingbroke  says  in  his  letters  on  the  Study  and  Uses 
of  History — attributing  the  remark  to  Dionysius  of  Hali- 
carnassus — that  ''history  is  philosophy  teaching  by  ex- 


61 


amples."  If  this  be  so,  then  indeed  Brothers  Alumni 
the  history  of  our  Alma  Mater,  from  her  earliest  past, 
is  part  and  parcel  of  a  grand  philosophy,  teaching  all  the 
virtues  that  go  to  make  the  patriot,  the  statesman,  and 
the  man,  and  we  may  not  too  warmly  nor  too  jealously 
cherish  the  deeds  and  memories  of  her  distinguished  sons, 
as  well  as  the  times  quorum  magna  pars  fuerunt.  It  is 
needless  to  remind  this  audience  that  the  names  of  many 
of  St.  John's  sons  are  enrolled  not  alone  in  the  annals  of 
the  State,  but  in  those  of  the  Nation  as  well.  They 
have  given  their  Alma  Mater  a  historic  place  in  the 
temple  of  fame  as  enduring  as  the  temple  itself.  As  an 
alumnus  bearing  the  revered  name  of  Pinkney  so  felicit- 
ously said  on  Commencement  Day  in  1855,  when  coup- 
ling the  name  of  Key  with  the  College, — "She  has  given 
the  Star  Spangled  Banner  to  the  nation,  and  made  other 
offerings  of  which  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  speak," 
A  College  necrology  has  also,  fortunately,  been  preserved, 
which  perpetuates,  in  the  archives  of  the  Alumni,  the 
memory  of  the  virtues  of  deceased  brethren.  This  necrol- 
ogy, first  suggested,  and  its  preparation  personally  begun, 
by  a  former  Principal,  Dr.  Humphreys,  has  been  extended 
and  continued,  you  need  not  be  reminded  how  faithfully, 
by  the  facile  pen  of  Mr.  John  G.  Proud,  of  the  Class  of  '34, 
whose  name,  alas,  now  adorns  that  roll  of  the  dead,  upon 
which  his  labors  of  love  and  painstaking  research  had 
stamped  the  seal  of  truth.  May  the  Alumni  ever  cherish 
the  memory  of  this  brother,  who  by  tongue  and  pen, 
both  in  forcible  prose  and  graceful  verse,  has  expressed 
so  much  devotion  to  St.  John's  and  her  sons. 

Though  St.  John's  first  opened  its  doors  on  the  lith 
day  of  November,  1789,  under  the  name  it  now  bears, 


62 


the  history  of  the  attempts  which  finally  eventuated  in 
its  establishment  begins  at  a  much  earlier  date. 

A  brief  sketch  here  of  the  origin  of  the  city  where  St. 
John's  is  located  may  not  be  out  of  place,  before  proceed- 
ing to  the  history  of  the  College  itself. 

When,  in  the  Province  of  Maryland,  under  the  Pro- 
prietary Grovernment  of  Cecilius  Calvert,  the  second  Lord 
Baltimore,  a  colony  had  already  become  settled  at  St. 
Mary's,  then  the  capital  of  the  Province,  though  the  red 
Indian  still  hunted  on  the  shores  of  the  Severn,  and  the 
''Old  Poplar  Tree  of  the  Old  College  G-reen"  under  which 
we  are  now  assembled,  then  stood  the  pride  of  the  "forest 
primeval,"  a  small  band  of  Puritans,  in  1649,  driven  by 
the  rigid  execution  against  them  of  the  laws  then  exist- 
ing in  the  Province  of  Virginia,  ''removed  themselves," 
their  "families  and  estates  into  the  Province  of  Mary- 
land, being  thereto  invited  by  Capt,  William  Stone,  then 
Governor  for  Lord  Baltimore,  with  the  promise  of  liberty 
in  religion  and  privileges  of  English  subjects. "  Captain 
Stone's  appointment  as  Governor,  it  is  said,  depended 
upon  his  bringing  five  hundred  immigrants  into  the 
Province,  hence  his  invitation  to  these  Puritans.  This 
company  of  about  one  hundred  immigrants  first  settled 
on  Greenberry's  Point,  then  known  as  Town  Neck,  which 
with  the  opposite  point,  now  known  as  Horn's  Point,  or 
Horn  Point,  forms  the  entrance  or  mouth  of  the  Severn 
River.  But,  only  eight  individuals  patenting  the  Neck, 
which  consisted  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  the  settle- 
ment spread  over  more  territory  and  occupied  both  banks 
of  the  Severn,  the  entire  settlement  being  named  "Provi- 
dence."    In  1650  this  settlement  sent  two  burgesses  to 


63 


the  General  Assembly  at  St.  Mary's,  one  of  the  two  being 
elected  speaker  of  the  lower  House.  This  Assembly 
passed  an  Act  erecting  Providence  into  a  county,  giving 
it  the  name  of  "Anne  Arundel" — the  maiden  name  of 
Lady  Baltimore. 

The  Puritan  settlers  having  taken  a  modified  oath — 
relinquishing  no  rights  as  English  subjects — professedly 
acquiesced  in  Lord  Baltimore's  Proprietary  Government 
under  Governor  Stone,  thereby  securing  only  warrants 
of  survey,  not  land  patents,  except  in  a  few  instances, 
to  secure  which  patents  would  have  required  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  Lord  Proprietor.  In  July  of  1650  Gov- 
ernor Stone  visited  the  settlers,  and  commissioned  Mr. 
Edward  Lloyd  to  be  Commander  of  Anne  Arundel  County. 

This  Mr.  Lloyd,  though  he  returned  to  England,  where 
he  died  in  London  in  1695,  left  a  son  in  the  Province,  in 
possession  of  an  estate  on  the  Eastern  shore.  This  son 
is  the  ancestor  of  the  Lloyd  family  whose  representatives, 
in  successive  generations,  have  given  distinguished  service 
to  the  State,  notably  in  its  councils  and  thrice  in  its 
gubernatorial  chair.  In  1651,  Mr.  Lloyd,  empowered  by 
the  Governor,  granted  a  warrant  to  Thomas  Todd  for 
land  covering  the  greater  part  of  what  is  now  Annapolis, 
Lord  Baltimore's  rent-roll,  showing  that  on  the  8th  of 
July,  1651,  one  hundred  acres  were  surveyed  for  said 
Todd.  In  the  following  November  a  parcel  of  one  hun- 
dred acres,  in  the  possession  of  Philip  Hammond,  was 
surveyed  for  Richard  Acton,  and  called  "Acton."  This 
land,  from  its  name,  will  be  recognized  by  many  in  my 
audience  as  forming  part  of  Annapolis. 

But  before  the  Puritans  were  firmly  here  settled,  stir- 
ring events  happened  between  1653  and  1657.     In  1654, 


64 


Cromwell  was  proclaimed  in  the  province  by  Governor 
Stone,  who  resigned  his  office,  submitting  his  authority 
to  the  Government  of  the  Protector.  But,  upbraided  by 
Lord  Baltimore,  he  engaged  in  the  ''battle  of  the  Severn," 
on  Sunday,  March,  25,  1655,  leading  Lord  Baltimore's 
forces  from  St.  Mary's  against  the  Puritans  of  the  Severn 
under  Captain  Fuller,  in  which  battle  the  latter  were 
victorious,  losing  but  six  killed,  while  Governor  Stone's 
forces  had  twenty  killed  and  thirty  wounded,  the  Gov- 
ernor himself  being  among  the  latter.  The  scene  of  the 
battle,  supposed  to  have  been  on  Horn  Point,  was  long 
called  the  "Papists'  Pound,"  and  the  ''men  of  Severn" 
governed  themselves  thereafter  until  1651,  when  settle- 
ment was  eifected,  through  intermediaries  and  Lord  Bal- 
timore, in  England.  During  these  difficulties  in  1654, 
the  name  of  Anne  Arundel  County  had  been  dropped, 
the  Puritans  again  calling  it  Providence,  but  in  1657,  by 
an  order  of  Council,  Providence  County  was  re-named 
"Anne  Arundel,"  the  "men  of  Severn"  having  virtually 
ruled  the  whole  province  for  nearly  eight  years. 

Of  this  "war/'  the  Kev.  Ethan  Allen  in  his  "Histori- 
cal Notices  of  St.  Ann's  Parish  in  Anne  Arundel  County, " 
published  in  1857,  from  which  the  facts  herein  recited, 
bearing  upon  the  origin  of  Annapolis,  are  mainly  gleaned, 
remarks:  "If,  as  alleged,  the  Lord  Protector  had  con- 
firmed the  reducement  of  Maryland  from  under  Lord  Bal- 
timore by  the  Commissioners,  then  this  was  a  war  against 
him  ;  and  the  St.  Mary's  government  was  a  rebellion 
against  the  government  established.  If,  however,  the 
St.  Marians  could  conquer,  their  right  to  govern  would 
be  as  good  at  least  as  was  Cromwell's  by  which  he  held 
the  government  of  England. " 


65 


In  1662,  ^'Todd's  Range"  was  surveyed,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Severn,  and  on  the  16th  of  September,  1670, 
"Todd's  Harbor,"  was  surveyed.  This  is  said  to  be  the 
site  of  Annapolis,  which,  in  1683,  under  the  name  of  the 
"Town  at  Proctor's,"  was  made  a  Port  of  Entry. 

In  1689  Proprietary  Government  ceased  in  Maryland, 
and  the  Colonial  Governor,  Sir  Lyonel  Copley,  assumed 
office  April  9,  1692.  Dying  the  next  year,  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Governor  Francis  Nicholson,  and  a  General 
Assembly  met  at  St.  Mary's  on  the  2l8t  of  September, 
1694.  This  Assembly  passed  an  Act  making  the  "town 
land  at  Severn  in  Anne  Arundel  County,  where  the  town 
was  formerly"  (doubtless  the  place  called  in  1683  the 
Town  at  Proctor's)  a  town  port  and  place  of  trade  under 
the  name  of  "Anne  Arundel  Town,"  and  "Major  Ham- 
mond, Major  Edward  Dorsey,  Mr.  John  Bennett,  Mr. 
John  Dorsey,  Mr,  Andrew  Norwood,  Mr.  Philip  Howard, 
Mr.  James  Saunders  and  the  Hon.  Nicholas  Greenberry, 
Esq.,  a  member  of  the  Council,  were  appointed  to  pur- 
chase and  lay  out  one  hundred  acres  of  land  in  lots  and 
streets,  and  with  open  places  to  be  left  on  which  to  erect  a 
church,  market-house,  and  other  public  buildings. "  The 
same  Assembly  passed  an  Act  for  the  erection  of  a  Court 
House,  and  the  seat  of  government  was  permanently  re- 
moved from  St.  Mary's  to  Anne  Arundel  Town,  whose 
name  was  changed  to  Annapolis,  in  honor  of  Queen  Anne 
as  is  recited  in  its  charter  subsequently  received.  The 
Court  House,  also  used  as  a  State  House,  was  completed 
in  1697,  but  destroyed  by  fire  in  1704.  Another  building 
was  erected  on  its  site,  but  torn  down  in  1769  to  give 
place  to  the  present  edifice,  supposed  to  have  been  designed 
5 


66 


by  a  pupil  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  the  corner  stone  of 
which  was  laid  in  1772  by  Governor  Eden,  the  last  of  the 
Colonial  Governors.  Historic  Annapolis  received  its 
charter  in  1708  from  the  Hon.  John  Seymour,  Colonial 
Governor,  and  thus  became  a  city  with  due  corporate 
powers  and  privileges. 

Prior,  however,  to  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  Govern- 
ment from  St,  Mary's,  the  first  effort  was  made,  by  the 
Legislature  in  1671,  to  establish  a  college  in  the  province 
of  Maryland,  from  which,  slowly,  through  many  further 
attempts,  St.  John's  was  evolved.  But  the  two  Houses 
of  the  Legislature  disagreed  upon  certain  amendments* 
passed  by  the  upper  House,  and  the  bill  failed  to  be  en- 
acted. Next,  in  1694,  Governor  Nicholson,  the  new  Gov- 
ernor, proposed  in  a  message  to  the  Legislature  "that  a 
way  be  found  for  the  building  of  a  Free  School  for  the 
Province,"  and  offered  to  give  money  for  its  maintenance. 
The  Governor's  proposition  was  approved  by  the  General 
Assembly,  which  offered  subscriptions  of  tobacco,  and 
suggested  that  two  Free  Schools  be  established,  one  at 
Oxford  on  the  Eastern  shore  of  the  State,  and  the  other 
at  Severn  on  the  Western  shore.  *  The  Rev,  Ethan  Allen, 
in  his  Notes  before  mentioned,  thus  refers  to  these  offers: 
"The  Governor  proposed  to  give  £50  for  the  building  of 
the  school  house  and  £25  per  annum  to  the  master.  Sir 
Thomas  Lawrence,  Secretary,  gave  5000  lbs.  towards  the 
building,  and  2000  lbs.  tobacco  per  annum  to  the  master. 
The  House  contributed  45,000  lbs.  tobacco  towards  the 

*These  facts  as  to  early  efforts  to  found  a  College  In  Maryland  are  recited  In  a  brief 
historical  sketch  attached  to  a  printed  catalogue  of  St.  John's,  published  In  1874,  re- 
ferring to  a  paper  in  the  Educational  Bureau  in  Washington. 


67 


building  ;  and  of  the  members  of  the  Council,  Cols. 
Jowles,  Robotham,  Greenberry  and  Brooks,  2000  lbs. 
each;  Hutchinson  and  Frisby  1000  lbs.  each,  Thomas 
Brooke,  Esq.,  £5  sterling  towards  the  master's  support 
and  Edmund  Randolph  £10  sterling."  No  practical 
measures,  however,  immediately  flowed  from  these  pro- 
ceedings. But  soon  after,  in  1696,  under  the  reign  of 
William  the  Third,  the  Colonial  Legislature  passed  a 
"Petitionary  Act"  praying  that  Sovereign  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  Free  School  or  schools  in  Anne  Arundel 
Town  upon  the  Severn  River,  with  corporate  powers  and 
privileges,  and  for  the  establishment  of  a  similar  Free 
School  in  every  county  of  the  Province.  The  latter  part 
of  this  proposed  measure  seems,  however,  not  to  have 
been  prosecuted  further  until  1723,  when  an  Act  was 
passed  for  the  erection  of  "one  school  in  each  county,  as 
near  the  centre  thereof  as  might  be  and  as  should  be  most 
convenient  for  the  boarding  of  children. "  The  petition- 
ary Act,  above  mentioned,  also  prayed  that  the  school  or 
schools  to  be  established  thereunder  in  Anne  Arundel 
Town  should  be  devoted  to  the  education  of  the  youth  of 
the  Province  in  good  letters  and  manners,  including 
Latin,  Greek  and  writing,  under  the  Royal  patronage, 
with  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  as  the  Chancellor; 
and  that,  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  Sovereign,  the 
first  school  there  established  should  be  called  King  Wil- 
liam's School;  to  be  managed  by  trustees,  to  be  appointed 
by  the  King,  and  by  others,  named  in  the  Act,  among  the 
names  mentioned  being  found  those  of  the  Governor, 
Francis  Nicholson,  Esq. ;  the  Hon.  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence, 
Bart. ;  Col.  George  Robotham;  Col.  John  Addison,  of  the 


68 


Provincial  Council,  and  tlie  Kev.  Peregrine  Coney. 
Though  this  petitionary  Act  was  not  declared  in  force 
until  the  time  of  Queen  Anne  in  1704,  yet  its  "Kectors, 
Visitors  and  Governors,"  apparently  in  anticipation  of 
the  royal  approval,  opened  "King  William's  School"  at 
Annapolis,  then  hut  recently  known  as  Anne  Arundel 
Town,  either  in  1701  or  1704 — the  exact  date  does  not 
appear  certain.  Governor  Nicholson  gave  to  the  school 
a  lot,  with  a  house  thereon,  and  the  Legislature  appro- 
priated money  to  build  the  school  house,  which  was  com- 
pleted about  the  time  of,  or  shortly  before,  the  opening 
of  the  school.  The  school  house,  built  of  brick  and  stone, 
was  located  on  the  south  side  of  the  State  House,  within 
the  present  limits  of  its  grounds,  about  where  the  De 
Kalb  monument  now  stands,  and  about  opposite  the 
Eastern  end  of  the  street  still  called  School  street. 

From  this  beginning,  at  the  dawn  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  King  William's  School  appears  to  have  flourished 
for  about  eighty-five  years,  passing  successfully  through 
the  perturbations  of  the  Eevolutionary  War,  and  edu- 
cating for  the  State  and  Nation  sons  distinguished  in 
the  early  history  of  the  country.  Among  its  pupils  Wil- 
liam Pinkney,  whose  fame,  too  broad  to  be  appropriated 
by  any  one  State,  is  a  heritage  unto  the  Nation.  This 
school,  as  we  shall  shortly  see,  was  finally  merged  in  St. 
John's  College,  delivering  over  to  it  its  head  master,  as 
a  professor,  and  students,  funds  and  other  property. 

In  the  meantime,  in  1732,  as  appears  by  the  historical 
sketch  above  mentioned,  "Proposals  for  founding  a  Col- 
lege at  Annapolis"  were  read  in  the  upper  House  of  As- 
sembly and    recommended   to   the  consideration  of  the 


69 


lower  House,  but  no  legislative  effect  was  given  to  these 
proposals.  In  1763  this  project  was  revived.  A  com- 
mittee presented  a  report  recommending  ''that  the  house 
in  the  city  of  Annapolis  which  was  intended  for  the  Gov- 
ernor of  this  Province,  be  completely  finished  and  used 
for  the  College  proposed  to  be  established. ' '  The  measure 
was  passed  by  the  lower  House,  providing  for  the  neces- 
sary expenses  and  annual  pay  of  the  Faculty,  to  consist 
of  seven  masters,  to  be  provided  with  five  servants,  biit 
it  failed  to  pass  the  upper  House.  But  the  intent  to 
establish  a  College  at  Annapolis  seemed  still  to  linger  in 
the  popular  mind;  for,  in  a  letter  dated  Oct,  4,  1773, 
William  Eddis,  the  Surveyor  of  Customs  at  the  port  of 
Annapolis,  writes,  to  a  friend  in  England,  that  the  Leg- 
islature of  the  province  had  determined  ''to  endow  and 
form  a  College  for  the  education  of  youth  in  every  liberal 
and  useful  branch  of  science"  which,  "as  it  will  be  con- 
ducted under  excellent  regulations,  will  shortly  preclude 
the  necessity  of  crossing  the  Atlantic  for  the  completion 
of  a  classical  and  polite  education. "  He  also  states  that 
it  had  been  determined  to  repair  the  damages  to  the 
"melancholy  and  mouldering  monument"  formerly  de- 
signed for  the  Governor's  mansion,  and  to  devote  it  "to 
the  purposes  of  collegiate  education,  for  which  every  cir- 
cumstance contributes  to  render  it  truly  eligible. "  As 
we  shall  presently  see,  this  "melancholy  and  mouldering 
monument,"  to-  use  his  own  expression,  was  finally 
selected  and  devoted  to  the  purposes  of  a  "classical  and 
polite  education."  But  the  Revolutionary  War  soon 
followed  this  stormy  period  of  the  country's  history, 
during  which  period,  the  patriotic  citizens  of  Annapolis 


TO 


caused  the  owner  or  consignees  of  a  tea-ship,  the  brig 
''Peggy  Stewart,"  themselves  to  apply  the  torch  and 
burn  the  ship  as  well  as  the  cargo.  The  hopes  and  eiForts 
of  those  who  sought  to  give  to  the  State  the  educational 
advantage  of  a  college  or  university  were  thus  doomed  to 
further  disappointment  and  delay,  so  that  not  until  1782 
did  the  Legislature  of  the  State,  the  Colonial  Govern- 
ment having  been  dethroned,  again  consider  the  matter. 
But  when  scarcely  out  of  the  throws  of  the  Revolution, 
and  before  the  definitive  treaty  of  peace  of  1784  had  been 
concluded,  it  was  proposed  to  establish  two  colleges  on 
the  shores  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  with  a  view  to  their 
subsequent  union  under  ''one  supreme  legislative  and 
visitorial  jurisdiction,  as  distinct  branches  or  members 
of  the  same  State  University,"  (Charter  of  Washington 
College,  Act  of  April,  1782,  Chap.  8.)  In  pursuance  of 
this  policy  Washington  College  was  founded  in  1782  on 
the  Eastern,  and,  two  years  later,  St.  John's  College  on 
the  Western  shore.  These  facts,  with  the  exception  of 
the  tea-burning  incident,  are  gathered  from  the  historical 
sketch  and  the  laws  above  mentioned. 

By  Chapter  37  of  the  Laws  of  1784,  the  Legislature  of 
the  new  and  Sovereign  State  of  Maryland,  in  consideration 
of  the  contributions  voluntarily  made  and  to  be  made  by 
individual  or  corporate  subscribers,  for  the  purpose  of 
founding  St.  John's  College,  granted  to  its  original  cor- 
porators, "The  Visitors  and  Governors,"  to  be  thereafter 
elected  by  such  subscribers,  a  charter,  by  the  XlXth 
section  of  which  the  sum  of  one  thousand  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds  current  money  was  annually  and /orever 
granted  as  a  donation  by  the  public  to  the  use  of  said 


11 


College,  to  be  applied  by  the  Visitors  and  Governors  to 
the  payment  of  salaries  to  the  Principal,  Professors  and 
Tutors  of  the  said  College. 

But,  on  the  25th  of  January,  1805,  the  Legislature 
passed  an  Act  (Chap.  85)  repealing  the  XlXth  section 
of  the  charter  and  the  annual  appropriation,  therein  pro- 
vided for,  was  withheld  from  the  College.  The  Act  of 
repeal,  however,  was  passed  by  but  a  small  majority.  It 
would  be  unprofitable  to  seek  or  to  discuss  here  the  rea- 
sons that  prompted  this  action  on  the  part  of  the  people's 
representatives.  The  action  itself  has  been  fitly  char- 
acterized, in  no  measured  terms,  time  and  again  by  elo- 
quent tongues,  and  it  will  be  sufiicient  to  remark  here 
that,  while  in  the  sixteenth  year  of  its  active  usefulness, 
and  when  promising  increased  advantages  for  the  future, 
this  action  so  crippled  the  institution  that  it  did  not,  for 
years  as  a  college,  recover  from  the  blow,  if  indeed  its 
whole  develo^ement  thereafter  was  not,  for  all  time,  modi- 
fied. But  in  1811  the  State  voted  an  annual  donation  of 
one  thousand  dollars,  and  in  1821  authorized  the  College 
to  raise,  by  a  lottery,  a  sum  not  exceeding  eighty  thous- 
and dollars,  of  which  amount  the  sum  of  twenty  thousand 
dollars  was  realized,  and  invested  as  a  college  fund.  In 
1832,  by  joint  resolution.  No.  41,  two  thousand  dollars 
was  added  by  the  State  to  the  annual  sum  of  one  thous- 
and dollars  theretofore  voted,  conditioned  upon  the  Visi- 
tors and  Governors  agreeing  to  accept  the  same  in  full 
satisfaction  of  all  claims  against  the  State  for  the  unpaid 
sums  provided  for  in  the  charter.  Despairing  of  better 
terms,  and  the  money  being  greatly  needed,  the  Visitors 
and  Governors,  under  such  circumstances  of  practical,  if 


•72 


not  legal,  duress,  acceded  to  and  executed  a  release.  Sub- 
sequently, by  Resolution  No.  4  of  1858,  the  Legislature 
authorized  a  suit  to  be  brought  to  test  the  constitution- 
ality of  the  repeal  of  the  XlXth  section  of  the  charter. 
Such  a  suit  was  accordingly  brought,  in  Equity,  the  Gov- 
ernor appearing  for  the  State  as  a  defendant.  The  bill 
charged  that  the  State  by  such  repeal  had  violated  the 
provisions  of  a  solemn  contract.  The  Court  of  Appeals, 
on  a  case  stated  from  the  Court  below,  so  held  (15  Md. 
Reports,  330) .  But  the  same  Court  also  held  later,  when 
payment  was  sought  to  be  obtained  by  proceedings  for  a 
mandamus  to  the  accounting  officers  of  the  Treasury,  that 
the  Visitors  and  Governors  ''having  accepted  the  propo- 
sals of  the  Legislature  and  by  their  solemn  and  formal 
release  having  discharged  and  extinguished  the  claim 
made  here,  have  deprived  themselves  of  the  power  as 
well  as  right  to  assert  and  again  maintain  it."  The 
Court,  having  reached  this  conclusion,  expressed  no 
opinion  upon  the  point  raised  by  the  defense,  that  a 
mandamus,  under  the  facts  of  the  case,  was  not  the  proper 
remedy.      (23  Md.  Rep.,  629). 

The  legal  proceedings  rested  here,  although  an  appeal 
from  this  decision  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  was  advised  by  eminent  authority,  upon  the  ground 
that  the  Visitors  and  Governors  had  exceeded  the  author- 
ity conferred  upon  them,  in  executing  such  release,  the 
case  being  one  in  which  the  act  complained  of  involved 
the  question  of  a  violation  of  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  Section  X  of  Article  I  of  which  declares  that  ''No 
State  shall  pass  any  Law  impairing  the  Obligation  of  Con- 
tracts." 


T3 


But  in  1866,  the  Visitors  and  Governors,  ever  faithful 
to  the  interests  of  the  College,  memorialized  the  Legisla- 
ture, urging,  in  the  strongest  terms,  the  hardship  of  the 
situation  and  their  dislike  to  appeal  to  a  jurisdiction  out- 
side of  the  State  in  search  of  any  relief  which  it  was  com- 
petent for  the  State  itself  by  legislative  action  to  grant. 
Whereupon  the  Legislature,  mindful  of  the  situation, 
voted  to  restore  the  amount  of  unpaid  annuities  which 
had,  through  fortuitous  circumstances,  accrued  within 
the  preceding  five  years — the  war  period — during  which 
the  College  was  closed.  An  additional  appropriation  of 
twelve  thousand  dollars  was  also  voted,  to  be  paid  annu- 
ally, on  and  after  June  1st,  1868,  for  the  next  five  years. 
(Act  of  1866,  Chap.  101). 

Of  the  Acts  of  1872,  Section  1  of  Chapter  393,  appro- 
priated, in  addition  "to  the  sum  of  three  thousand  dol- 
lars now  annually  paid, ' '  the  sum  of  twelve  thousand  dol- 
lars annually  on  and  after  the  first  day  of  June,  1873,  for 
and  during  the  term  of  six  years.  Section  2  granted  ten 
thousand  dollars  per  annum  for  the  board,  fuel,  lights 
and  washing  of  two  students  from  each  senatorial  district 
to  be  given  free  tuition  by  the  College.  Section  3  gave 
in  gross  the  sum  of  five  thousand  dollars  for  increasing 
and  improving  the  college  library,  laboratory,  philoso- 
phical apparatus  and  cabinet. 

Of  the  Acts  of  1878,  Section  1  of  Chapter  315,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  permanent  annuity  of  three  thousand  dollars, 
continued  the  appropriation  of  1872,  of  twelve  thousand 
dollars,  then  about- to  expire,  for  and  during  the  term  of 
two  years  on  and  after  the  first  day  of  October,  1878.  Sec- 
tion 2  repealed  section  2  of  Chapter  393  of  the  Acts  of  1872, 


u 


and  granted  instead  two  hundred  dollars  per  annum, 
beginning  the  first  day  of  October,  1878,  for  every  stu- 
dent provided  for  in  said  repealed  section,  until  the  num- 
ber of  said  students  should  be  reduced  to  one  for  each 
senatorial  district,  when,  and  thereafter,  it  granted  the 
sum  of  five  thousand  two  hundred  dollars  per  annum  for 
the  board,  fuel,  lights  and  washing  of  such  total  number 
of  students,  to  be  given  free  tuition  by  the  college — under 
the  conditions  of  good  character,  pecuniary  inability, 
and  other  qualifications  imposed.  The  statute-book,  to 
the  present,  shows  no  further  financial  legislation  in  aid 
of  the  college,  except  the  sums  of  seven  thousand  five  hun- 
dred dollars  appropriated  by  the  Act  of  1882,  chapter 
459;  and  four  thousand  dollars  by  the  Act  of  1886,  chap- 
ter 402;  and  two  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  dol- 
lars, amount  of  two  years  interest  on  the  indebtedness  of 
the  College,  appropriated  by  the  Act  of  1888,  Chapter  408. 

This  cursory  sketch  of  the  financial  relations  which 
have  existed  between  the  parent  State  and  St.  John's 
from  its  birth,  while  showing  a  certain  liberality,  also 
shows  to  what  slight  approach  towards  the  real  necessities 
of  the  case  such  assistance  could  only  go.  Such  digres- 
sion from  the  orderly  narration  of  events  in  the  history  of 
the  College  has  been  made,  however,  solely  with  a  view  of 
avoiding  the  interruption  of  such  narration  by  the  intro- 
duction, at  intervals,  of  financial  details  which  it  seemed 
better  to  connect  and  mass  in  one  statement. 

Returning  now  to  the  year  1784 — the  date  when,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  legal  existence  of  St.  John's,  eo  nomine, 
began — we  find  many  of  Maryland's  sons,  distinguished 
in  both  the  State  and  Nation,  among  the  promoters  in  the 


T5 


endeavor  to  found  a  great  college  of  that  name.  Active 
among  these  promoters  were  Samuel  Chase,  William  Paca, 
Thomas  Stone,  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  famous  as 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Daniel  of  St. 
Thomas  Jenifer,  John  Eagar  Howard,  Richard  Eidgely, 
George  Plater,  Luther  Martin,  Jeremiah  Townley  Chase, 
Alexander  Contee  Hanson,  the  Right  Reverend  Thomas 
John  Claggett,  Rohert  Bowie,  the  Eversfields,  Benedict 
Calvert,  Benjamin  Stoddard,  George  Diggs,  Gerard  B. 
Causin,  John  Chapman,  John  Sterett,  Daniel  McMachen, 
Daniel  Bowly,  Robert  Gilmor,  Otho  H.  Williams,  George 
Lux,  and  others  of  like  excellence  and  influence. 

Under  these  auspicious  influences  St.  John's  received 
its  charter  from  the  State  of  Maryland.  The  act  of  incor- 
poration, constituting  this  charter,  (Chapter  37  of  the 
Acts  of  1784,  consisting  of  the  preamble  and  thirty-six 
sections)  is  entitled: 

"An  Act  for  founding  a  College  on  the  western  shore 
of  this  State  and  constituting  the  same,  together  with 
Washington  College  on  the  eastern  shore,  into  one  uni- 
versity, by  the  name  of  The  University  of  Maryland." 

This  charter  in  its  preamble  declares :  ' '  Whereas  insti- 
tutions for  the  liberal  education  of  youth  in  the  princi- 
ples of  virtue,  knowledge  and  useful  literature,  are  of 
the  highest  benefit  to  society,  in  order  to  train  up  and 
perpetuate  a  succession  of  able  and  honest  men  for  dis- 
charging the  various  ofiices  and  duties  of  life,  both  civil 
and  religious,  with  usefulness  and  reputation,  and  such 
institutions  of  learning  have  accordingly  been  promoted 
and  encouraged  by  the  wisest  and  best  regulated  States: 
And  whereas  it  appears  to  this  general   assembly  that 


•76 


many  public  spirited  individuals,  from  an  earnest  desire 
to  promote  the  founding  a  college  or  seminary  of  learn- 
ing on  the  western  shore  of  this  State,  have  subscribed 
and  procured  subscriptions  to  a  considerable  amount,  and 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  very  large  additions  will 
be  obtained  to  the  same  throughout  the  different  counties 
of  the  said  shore,  if  they  were  made  capable  in  law  to 
receive  and  apply  the  same  towards  founding  and  carry- 
ing on  a  college  or  general  seminary  of  learning,  with 
such  statutory  plan,  and  with  such  legislative  assistance 
and  direction,  as  the  general  assembly  might  think  fit; 
and  this  general  assembly  highly  approving  those  gener- 
ous exertions  of  individuals,  are  desirous  to  embrace  the 
present  favorable  occasion  of  peace  and  prosperity  for 
making  lasting  provision  for  the  encouragement  and  ad- 
vancement of  all  useful  knowledge  and  literature  through 
every  part  of  this  State." 

By  the  second  section  immediately  following  the  pre- 
amble, it  is  in  part  enacted:  ''  That  a  college  or  general 
seminary  of  learning,  by  the  name  of  Saint  John's,  be 
established  on  the  said  western  shore,  upon  the  following 
fundamental  and  inviolable  principles,  namely;  first,  the 
said  college  shall  be  founded  and  maintained  for  ever,  upon 
a  most  liberal  plan,  for  the  benefit  of  youth  of  every  reli- 
gious denomination,  who  shall  be  freely  admitted  to  equal 
privileges  and  advantages  of  education,  and  to  all  the  lite- 
rary honors  of  the  college,  according  to  their  merit,  with- 
out requiring  or  enforcing  any  religious  or  civil  test,  or 
urging  their  attendance  upon  any  particular  religious  wor- 
ship or  service,  other  than  what  they  have  been  educated 
in,  or  have  the  consent  and  approbation  of  their  parents 


11 


or  guardians  to  attend;  nor  shall  any  preference  be  given 
in  the  choice  of  a  principal,  vice-principal,  or  other  pro- 
fessor, master  or  tutor,  in  the  said  college,  on  account 
of  his  particular  religious  profession,  having  regard  solely 
to  his  moral  character  and  literary  abilities,  and  other 
necessary  qualifications  to  fill  the  place  for  which  he  shall 
be  chosen." 

By  the  third  section.  The  Right  Reverend  John  Carroll 
(the  first  Catholic  Archbishop  of  America)  and  the  Rev- 
erend Doctors  William  Smith  and  Patrick  Allison  (emi- 
nent divines  respectively  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  and 
Presbyterian  Churches),  Richard  Spring,  John  Steret, 
George  Diggs,  Esquires,  "and  such  other  persons  as  they 
or  any  two  of  them  may  appoint,"  were  ''authorized  to 
solicit  and  receive  subscriptions  and  contributions  for  the 
said  intended  college  and  seminary  of  universal  learning. " 

It  is  needless  to  add  that  we  are  told  that  these  eminent 
men,  of  all  shades  of  faith,  cordially  assisted  and  harmo- 
niously engaged  in  the  good  work  of  securing  funds  for, 
and  of  assisting  in,  the  founding  of  the  intended  seminary 
of  universal  learning,  ''upon  a  most  liberal  plan  for  the 
benefit  of  youth,  of  every  religious  denomination,"  which 
should  require  no  religious  test,  nor  "attendance  upon 
any  particular  religious  worship  or  service." 

By  the  same  third  section  it  is  provided  that  each  sub- 
scriber, or  class  of  subscribers,  of  one  thousand  dollars 
shall  be  entitled  to  elect  "one  Visitor  or  Governor  "  of 
the  College. 

By  the  fourth  section  it  is  enacted  that  when  the  Visi- 
tors and  Governors  were  so  elected,  they  should  meet  and 
take  upon  themselves  their  trust  and  should  then  be  "  one 


78 


community,  corporation  and  body  politic,  to  have  contin- 
uance forever  by  the  name  of  the  Visitors  and  Grovernors 
of  St.  John's  College  in  the  State  of  Maryland;  and  by 
the  same  name  shall  have  perpetual  succession." 

The  seventh  section,  in  case  Annapolis  should  be  se- 
lected by  the  Visitors  and  Governors  as  the  place  for 
establishing  the  College,  grants  them  a  lot  of  four  acres 
of  ground  in  fee,  whereon  St.  John's  should  be  located. 
This  lot  contained  the  monumental  ruin,  mentioned  in  Mr. 
Eddis'  letter,  in  1773,  which  will  be  described  further  on. 

By  the  thirty-third  section  it  is  enacted  that  Washing- 
ton College  and  St.  John's  College  ''shall  be  and  they 
are  hereby  declared  to  be  one  University,  by  the  name  of 
the  University  of  Maryland,  whereof  the  Governor  of  the 
State  for  the  time  being  shall  be  chancellor,  and  the  prin- 
cipal of  one  of  said  colleges  shall  be  vice-chancellor,  either 
by  seniority  or  election,  according  to  such  rule  or  by-law 
of  the  University  as  may  afterwards  be  made  in  that  case. " 
This  legalized  union  never  reaching  consummation,  St. 
John's  took  its  departure  from  King  William's  School, 
alone,  for  weal  or  woe,  among  the  educational  institutions 
of  the  young  Republic. 

The  preamble  to  the  consolidation  Act  of  1785,  chap- 
ter 39,  informs  us  that,  "The  Rector,  Governors,  Trus- 
tees and  Visitors  of  King  William's  School,  in  the  city 
of  Annapolis,  have  represented  to  the  general  assembly 
that  they  are  desirous  of  appropriating  the  funds  belong- 
ing to  the  said  school  to  the  benefit,  support  and  mainte- 
nance of  Saint  John's  College,  in  such  manner  as  shall 
be  consistent  with,  and  better  fulfil  the  intentions  of  the 
founders  and  benefactors  of  the  said  school,  in  advancing 


79 


the  interests  of  piety  and  learning,  and  have  prayed  that 
a  law  may  pass  for  the  said  purpose,"  wherefore  the 
second  section  of  the  Act,  immediately  following  the  pre- 
amble, enacts  that,  the  prayer  be  granted  and  that,  upon 
the  mutual  agreement  of  the  parties  upon  terms,  "all 
the  lands,  chattels,  and  choses  in  action  and  property" 
belonging  to  the  said  school  may  be  conveyed  by  deed  to 
the  Visitors  and  Governors  of  St.  John's  College. 

The  third  section  enacts  that  if  such  conveyance  be 
not  effected,  the  property  shall  remain  in,  or  revert  to, 
the  Rector,  Governors,  Trustees  and  Visitors  of  King 
William's  School,  who  are,  in  said  section,  incorporated, 
with  power  to  carry  out  the  original  purpose  of  the  school, 
by  the  name  of  the  Rector  and  Visitors  of  Annapolis 
School,  and  by  no  other  name  to  be  known. 

The  subscriptions  obtained  for  St.  John's  College  under 
the  above  mentioned  provisions  of  law,  prior  to  1786, 
from  other  sources  than  the  State's  Treasury,  had  thus 
amounted  to  the  sum  of  eleven  thousand  pounds  sterling, 
including  two  thousand  pounds  subscribed  under  the  legal 
provisions  already  narrated,  by  King  William's  School. 
This  sum  entitled  the  Rector  and  Visitors  of  said  school, 
by  the  terms  of  St.  John's  charter,  to  elect  two  Visitors 
and  Governors,  who  were  accordingly  elected  as  members 
of  the  original  Board,  at  a  subscribers'  meeting  held  in 
1784 — nine  other  members  being  elected,  one  by  each 
subscriber,  or  class  of  subscribers,  of  one  thousand  pounds. 
The  first  meeting  of  this  Board  of  Visitors  and  Governors 
elected  by  the  subscribers  was  held  February  28,  1786, 
and  the  following  named  members  duly  qualified  on  that 
day  before  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  General  Court:  Right 


80 


Kev.  Thomas  J.  Claggett,  D.  D.,  Eev.  William  West, 
D.  D.,  Nicholas  Carroll,  Esq.,  John  H.  Stone,  Esq.,  Wil- 
liam Beans,  Esq.,  Kichard  Ridgely,  Esq.,  Samuel  Chase, 
Esq.,  John  Thomas,  Esq.,  Thomas  Stone,  Esq.,  Alexan- 
der C.  Hanson,  Esq.,  LL.  D.,  and  Thomas  Jennings,  Esq., 
the  last  t.wo  elected  by  the  Rector  and  Visitors  of  King 
William's  School.  On  the  first  day  of  March,  1786,  this 
Board  of  Visitors  and  Governors  fixed  upon  Annapolis 
as  a  place  proper  for  establishing  the  College — nine  votes 
being  cast  in  favor'of  this  location  and  but  two  in  favor 
of  Upper  Marlborough — the  only  other  place  considered. 
At  the  same  time,  the  consolidation  of  King  William's 
School  and  St.  John's  College  was  carried  into  practical 
effect  by  the  transfer  of  its  property  to,  and  merger  of  its 
newly  named  successor,  the  ^'Annapolis  School,"  in,  the 
college.  Subsequently,  in  1789,  ten  members  were  elected 
to  their  Board  by  the  votes  of  the  Visitors  and  Governors, 
and  the  succession  has  been  maintained  by  such  elections 
of  new  members  to  the  present  time.  The  names  of  those 
elected,  as  above  mentioned,  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  in 
1789  were — Gustavus  Brown,  M.  D.,  John  Allen  Thomas, 
Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  Jeremiah  Townley  Chase, 
Charles  Wallace,  James  Brice,  Richard  Sprigg,  Edward 
Gantt,  Clement  Hill,  and  Right  Rev.  John  Carroll,  D.  D. 
Annapolis  having  been  thus  selected  for  the  site  of  the 
college,  by  the  terms  of  the  seventh  section  of  its  charter, 
St.  John's  obtained  the  grant  of  "all  that  four  acres  of 
land  within  the  city  of  Annapolis,  purchased  for  the  use 
of  the  public  and  conveyed  on  the  second  day  of  October, 
seventeen  hundred  and  forty-four,  by  Stephen  Bordley, 
Esquire,  to  Thomas  Bladen,  Esquire,  then  Governor,  to 


81 


have  and  to  hold  the  said  four  acres  of  land  with  the  ap- 
pertenances  to  the  said  visitors  and  governors,  for  the 
only  use,  benefit  and  behoof  of  the  college  or  seminary 
of  universal  learning  forever." 

The  charter  likewise  empowers  the  Visitors  and  Gov- 
ernors to  acquire  other  property,  both  real  and  personal, 
and  to  alienate  all  such  acquisitions,  saving  and  accept- 
ing, however,  anything  acquired  by  the  original  charter- 
grant. 

The  ''appertenances  "  belonging  to  this  four  acres  of 
land  consisted  of  the  remains  of  a  handsome  mansion, 
projected  by  Governor  Bladen  about  1744,  for  the  official 
residence  of  the  Colonial  Governors,  which  though  com- 
menced under  the  supervision  of  a  Scotch  architect,  who 
came  to  the  country  especially  to  construct  it,  was  never 
completed  for  the  purposes  originally  intended,  owing,  we 
are  told,  to  a  quarrel  between  the  Governor  and  the  Legis- 
lature. Hence  this  building  went  almost  to  ruin,  and 
remained  uncompleted  for  years,  receiving  the  popular 
name  of  ''Bladen's  Folly"  or  ''The  Governor's  Folly." 
This  popular  appellation  was  recorded  in  verse  by  a  local 
poet,  who,  in  the  Annapolis  Gazette  of  September  5, 
1771, — the  old  church  on  the  site  where  now  stands  St. 
Anne's  being  sadly  in  need  of  repairs, — published  some 
lines  on  the  subject,  headed  as  follows:  "To  the  very 
worthy  and  respectable  inhabitants  of  Annapolis,  the 
humble  petition  of  their  old  church  sheweth." 

The  old  church  is  made  to  speak  in  the  first  person  and 
in  the  course  of  the  "petition"  says: — 


82 


"  With  grief  in  yonder  field,  hard  bye, 
A  sister  ruin  I  espy : — 
Old  Bladen' s  jjalace,  once  so  f&med. 
And  now  too  well  'the  folly'  named. 
Her  roof  all  tottering  to  decay. 
Her  walls  a-mouldering  all  away. " 

It  is  needless  to  add  that  on  the  present  "College 
Green"  or  campus  stands  the  ''Governor's  Folly,"  near 
whose  walls,  since  crowned  by  "McDowell  Hall,"  we  are 
now  assembled. 

On  the  10th  of  March,  1786,  it  was  resolved  by  the 
Visitors  and  Governors  to  repair  and  finish  this  old  struc- 
ture and  to  add  wings  on  the  North  and  South  sides  and 
a  building-committee  was  appointed  consisting  of  Alexan- 
der Contee  Hanson,  Nicholas  Carroll  and  Richard  Ridgely, 
Esquires,  to  carry  into  effect  such  a  plan.  The  building, 
however,  was  completed,  without  these  additions,  in  its 
present  form  and  style,  and  it  is  said  that  the  marks  in- 
dicating the  lines  of  union  between  new  and  old  work  in 
making  repairs  and  completing  the  walls,  are  still  visible. 

On  the  11th  of  August,  1789,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Visi- 
tors and  Governors,  "Bishop  Carroll  was  unanimously 
elected  President  of  the  Board, "  and  "Dr.  John  McDowell 
appeared  and  accepted  the  professorship  of  Mathematics, 
tendered  him  on  the  14th  of  May  preceding. "  The  Rev. 
Ralph  Higginbottom,  then  Rector  of  St.  Anne's  Parish, 
"was  also  elected  professor  of  Languages"  at  this  meet- 
ing. 

The  college-building  having  been  made  habitable,  the 
"11th  day  of  November,  1789,  was  selected  for  the  occa- 
sion of  opening  the  Institution,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith 


83 


was  requested  to  attend  as  Principal  of  the  College,  pro 
tempore,  and  to  deliver  a  sermon.  The  dedication  was 
performed  with  much  solemnity,  all  the  puhlic  bodies, 
(state  and  municipal,  and  citizens  and  students),  being 
in  attendance,  and  forming  a  long  procession  from  the 
State  house  to  the  College  Hall."  An  address,  on  the 
' 'Advantages  of  a  classical  education,"  was  also  delivered 
by  the  Rev.  Ralph  Higginbottom  in  addition  to  the  ser- 
mon preached  by  the  Rev.  William  Smith,  On  this  oc- 
casion, Charles  Carroll  of  CarroUton,  appeared,  qualified 
as  a  Visitor  and  Governor,  and  took  part  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  day. 

With  Dr.  John  McDowell,  LL.  D.,  as  Professor  of 
Mathematics,  now  presiding  as  Principal,  and  Rev.  Ralph 
Higginbottom,  Professor  of  Languages,  the  College 
started  into  life.  Mr.  Higginbottom  brought  with  him 
many  scholars  from  King  William's  and  the  Annapolis 
School,  of  which  he  was  the  last  Head  Master. 

On  May  14th,  1790,  Dr.  McDowell  was  elected  by  the 
Board  Principal  of  the  College,  efforts  to  obtain  a  Prin- 
cipal from  England  having,  up  to  that  time,  failed  of  re- 
sponse; and  in  the  same  year,  a  Professor  of  grammar, 
Patrick  McGrath,  was  added  to  the  faculty.  On  No- 
vember 10th  of  this  year  a  convocation,  composed  of  rep- 
resentatives from  Washington  and  St.  John's  Colleges 
was  held  at  Annapolis  before  the  Governor  of  the  State, 
as  Chancellor  ex  officio  of  "The  University  of  Maryland," 
as  provided  in  section  23  of  St.  John's  Charter,  already 
quoted,  the  purpose  in  view  being  the  union  of  both  Col- 
leges under  the  title  of  said  University.  This  union,  it 
is  needless  to  add,  has  never  been  consummated,  though 


84 


in  May,  1791,  representatives  from  St.  John's  appeared 
at  another  convocation  at  Annapolis,  at  which  Washing- 
ton College  was  not  represented.  The  Chancellor  there- 
upon adjourned  the  convocation  to  "the  second  Wednes- 
day in  November  next,"  and  no  more  convocations  appear 
to  have  been  held.  The  causes  which  prevented  the  con- 
summation of  this  union  it  would  not  be  profitable  here 
to  discuss.  The  spirit  and  temper  of  the  times,  influ- 
enced doubtless  by  the  lack  of  facilities  of  travel,  had  in- 
augurated the  plan  of  two  Colleges,  as  a  compromise 
between  conflicting  views  and  interests,  and  thus  both 
energy  and  means  were  spent  to  less,  instead  of  greater 
advantage.  In  1792,  Mr.  Higginbottom  was  made  Vice- 
Principal  by  the  Board;  and  ''the  sum  of  275  lbs.  was 
expended  for  the  purchase  in  London  of  the  requisite 
Philosophical  apparatus,"  and  by  the  succeeding  year, 
three  additional  teachers  had  been  added,  making  a  corps 
of  six  professors  including  the  Principal  and  Vice-Prin- 
cipal. 

In  1793,  at  its  first  Commencement,  St.  John's  con- 
ferred the  degree  of  B.  A.  upon  three  graduates,  Charles 
Alexander,  John  Addison  Carr  and  William  Long,  but 
the  alumni,  credited  to  this  class,  number  in  all  sixteen, 
of  which  number  one  became  Governor  of  the  State;  one, 
a  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals;  two,  Associate  Judges 
of  a  judicial  district;  one,  the  Clerk  of  the  Executive 
Council;  one,  a  Register  of  Wills;  and  one,  a  Visitor  and 
Governor  of  the  College.  The  Historical  Society  of  Anne 
Arundel  County  is  authority  for  the  following,  to  say  the 
least,  remarkable  summary  of  the  earlier  work  of  St. 
John's: 


85 


''From  its  first  Commencement,  held  in  1793,  to  that 
of  1806,  a  brief  period  of  thirteen  years,  we  find  among 
the  names  of  its  graduates  those  of  no  less  than  four 
Governors  of  Maryland,  one  Governor  of  Liberia,  seven 
members  of  the  Executive  Council,  three  United  States 
Senators,  five  members  of  the  U.  S.  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, four  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  (General 
Court),  eight  Judges  of  other  Courts,  one  Attorney-Gen- 
eral of  the  U,  S.,  one  U.  S.  District  Attorney,  one 
Auditor  of  the  U.  S.  Treasury,  six  State  Senators  and 
fifteen  members  of  the  House  of  Delegates;  besides  foreign 
consuls,  officers  of  the  Navy  and  Army,  physicians  and 
surgeons,  distinguished  lawyers,  (including  a  chancellor 
of  South  Carolina,)  college  professors  and  others." 

Among  this  array  of  learning  and  worth  it  will  not  be 
invidious  to  mention  the  name  of  one  of  the  class  of  1802, 
David  Hoffman,  LL.  D.,  author,  historian  and  jurist,  a 
citizen  of  Maryland,  eminent  in  his  own  and  a  neighbor- 
ing State,  as  well  as  abroad,  and  upon  whom  degrees  were 
conferred  by  the  Universities  at  Oxford  and  Gottingen. 
Dr.  Hoffman  was  both  a  patron  and  a  Visitor  and  Gov- 
ernor of  St.  John's. 

Of  the  pupils  of  St.  John's  in  its  early  days,  the  "Mary- 
land Collegian"  of  March,  1878,  states:  "We  find  from 
an  examination  of  the  old  matriculating  register  that 
between  the  years  1789  and  1805,  it  shows  not  only  repre- 
sentatives of  every  county  of  Maryland  and  the  City  of 
Baltimore,  but  also  from  the  States  of  Pennsylvania, 
Delaware,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
Georgia  and  Louisiana.  We  find  there  representatives 
from  no  less  than  nine  counties  of  the  State  of  Virginia, 


86 


and  the  following  well-known  Virginia  names:  Washing- 
ton, Custis,  Dulany,  Alexander,  Thompson,  Clark, 
Herbert,  Lomax,  Taylor,  Benson,  Gribbon,  Love,  Black- 
burn, Burwell,  Mercer,  and  others. "  The  same  authority 
finds  the  names  of  two  students  from  England;  one  from 
France;  three  from  the  West  Indies;  one  from  Portugal; 
and,  ''omitting  as  many,  quite  as  distinguished,"  the 
following  Maryland  names  of  Jennings,  Dulany,  Carroll, 
Stone,  Pinkney,  Lloyd,  Chase,  Ogle,  Hanson,  Thomas, 
Murray,  Ridgely,  Key,  Dorsey,  Snowden,  Harwood, 
Stewart,  Lee  and  Howard. 

The  Custis  above  named  among  the  Virginians  refers 
to  George  Washington  Parke  Custis,  the  stepson  and 
ward  of  Washington,  who,  it  is  said,  took  a  great  interest 
in  St.  John's,  which  he  manifested  by  sending  there  his 
own  ward  as  a  pupil.  The  genial  old  gentleman,  Mr. 
Custis,  was  at  one  time  a  member  of  the  class  of  1799, 
and  survived  long  enough  to  be  personally  known  to 
several  of  my  brothers  alumni  present. 

Memorable  among  the  distinguished  names  of  gradu- 
ates during  the  period  above  named,  stand  the  names  of 
Francis  Scott  Key,  B.  A.,  and  John  Shaw,  B.  A.,  M.  D. 
They  early  gave  promise  of  their  great  talents  and  use- 
fulness. It  is  said  that  Mr.  Higginbottom  took  great 
pride  in  exhibiting  before  visitors  the  accomplishments 
of  these  students  and  others,  wlio,  with  them,  formed 
the  graduating  class  of  1796.  Mr.  Key's  talents  as  a 
poet  were  also  shared  by  his  classmate,  Shaw,  The  poems 
of  each  have  been  preserved  in  book  form.  In  1810  a 
volume  of  Dr.  Shaw's  poems  appeared,  containing  the 
following  sonnet  written  some  years  previous  and  probably 


87 


the  oldest  preserved  record,  in  song,  of  tlie  old  college  tree 
of  pre-historic  growth,  whose  wide-spreading  branches, 
still  living,  now  wave  over  this  audience  : — 

"Thee,  ancient  tree,  autumnal  vstorms  assail. 

Thy  shattered  branches  spread  the  sound  afar; 
Thy  tall  head  bows  before  the  rising  gale, 

Thy  pale  leaf  flits  along  the  troubled  air. 
No  more  thou  boastest  of  thy  vernal  bloom. 

Thy  withered  foliage  glads  the  eye  no  more; 
Yet  still,  thy  presence  in  thy  lonely  gloom 

A  secret  pleasure  to  my  soul  restore. 
For  round  th,v  trunk  mj'  careless  childhood  stray'd, 

When  fancy  led  me  cheerful  o'er  the  green. 
And  many  a  frolic  feat  beneath  thy  shade. 

Far  distant  daj's  and  other  suns  have  seen. 
Fond  recollection  kindles  at  the  view, 
And  acts  each  long  departed  scene  anew." 

Dominie  Higginbottom  is  said  to  have  been  a  graduate 
of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and  a  complete  master  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  languages.  He  was  ordained  a  priest  of 
the  established  church  before  emigrating  to  America.  He 
resigned  the  Rectorship  of  St.  Anne's  parish,  in  1804,  but 
remained  Vice-Principal  of  St.  John's  until  his  death  in 
1813.  Dr.  McDowell,  and  the  Faculty  under  him,  thus 
gave  to  St.  John's  its  grand  history,  until  1806. 

On  May  12th  of  said  year,  the  Visitors  and  Governors 
passed  a  resolution  which  recited  that,  '^  Whereas,  by 
virtue  of  an  act  of  the  Legislature  of  Maryland,  at  their 
last  session,  the  donation  from  the  State  for  St.  John's 
College  of  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  per  annum, 
will  cease  and  determine  on  the  first  day  of  June  next, 


88 


therefore, — Eesolved,  that  the  Principal,  Vice-Principal, 
Professors  and  Masters  of  said  College  be  discontinued  on 
the  tenth  day  of  August  next."  The  Board  of  Visitors 
and  Governors,  however,  notwithstanding  this  necessary 
measure,  made  the  best  provisions  possible  for  continu- 
ing the  college  work. 

Though  re-appointed  by  the  Visitors  and  Governors, 
this  sudden  shock  to  the  brilliant  usefulness  of  the  col- 
lege so  depressed  the  health  and  spirits  of  Dr.  McDowell 
that  he  declined  re-appointment.  Mr.  Higginbottom, 
however,  notwithstanding  said  Resolution,  appears  to 
have  been  retained,  and  Dr.  McDowell  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Board  of  Visitors  and  Governors.  Subsequently 
he  accepted  the  chair  of  Provost  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, resigning  his  office  as  Visitor  and  Governor  of 
St.  John's.  In  1815  he  returned  to  the  State,  and  was 
again  offered  the  position  of  Principal  of  the  College. 
This  he  declined,  and  was  again  made  a  Visitor  and  Gov- 
ernor. Dr.  McDowell  is  said  to  have  been  "  a  man  of  fine 
presence,  and  of  a  pleasing  and  winning  address,  combin- 
ing in  a  remarkable  degree  great  firmness  and  dignity  of 
character  with  an  almost  feminine  gentleness.  He  was  a 
thorough  scholar,  and  a  Christian  gentleman,  greatly  be- 
loved by  all  who  knew  him. "     He  died  in  February,  1821. 

Returning  to  the  work  of  the  College,  begun  and  con- 
tinued under  the  regime  of  its  succeeding  Principals, 
St.  John's  history  exhibits  heroic  efforts  on  the  part  of  its 
officers  and  friends  to  maintain  its  original  high  standard 
of  efficiency;  and  the  struggle,  though  a  hard  one,  has 
been  carried  on  to  success, — very  great  success,  certainly, 
if  the  quality,  not  mere  numbers,  of  the  graduates  be 


89 


taken  as  the  standard  of  comparison ;  as  will  appear  from 
the  facts  yet  to  be  narrated. 

Dr.  McDowell's  successor  was  the  Rev.  Bethel  Judd, 
D.  D.,  who  was  elected  in  1807  and  remained  as  Princi- 
pal until  about  1812.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Allen,  in  his  Notes, 
tells  us  that  Dr.  Judd  "was  very  much  respected  in  the 
church  *  *  *  and  in  1811,  in  the  absence  of  the  Bishop, 
had  presided  over  the  Convention."  Mr.  Higginbottom 
dying  the  next  year,  the  College  was  left  without  any 
elected  Principal  or  Vice-Principal,  from  about  1813  to 
1816,  when  the  Rev.  Henry  Lyon  Davis,  D.  D.,  was  elected 
Vice-Principal,  and  in  1820,  Principal,  holding  the  latter 
office  until  1824.  Dr.  Davis  was  the  father  of  the  bril- 
liant orator,  the  late  Hon.  Henry  Winter  Davis,  Repre- 
sentative in  Congress  from  Baltimore  City;  and  Mr.  Allen 
tells  us  that  the  father  "  was  a  man  of  mu(fh  learning,  of 
vigorous  mind  and  of  commanding  personal  stature. ' '  Dr. 
Davis  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  William  Rafferty,  D.  D., 
who  held  the  office  of  Principal  from  1824  until  1831.  He 
was  elected  Professor  of  ancient  languages  in  1819  and 
Vice-Principal  in  1820,  which  office  he  held  until  his  pro- 
motion in  1824.  Dr.  Rafferty  was  a  native  of  Ireland, 
and,  we  are  told,  an  accomplished  Latin  and  Greek  scholar. 
He  was  succeeded  in  1831  by  the  Rev.  Hector  Humphreys, 
of  whose  administration  more  will  be  said  further  on. 

Any  allusion  here,  however,  to  the  college  faculty  of 
this  period  would  be  incomplete  without  mention  of  the 
name  of  Edward  Sparks,  M.  D.,  professor  of  ancient  lan- 
guages for  more  than  thirty  years  from  1822.  Dr.  Sparks 
was  a  native  of  Ireland,  with  marked  and  some  of  the  best 
characteristics  of  his  race.'     He,  early  in  life,  married  into 


90 


the  Pinkney  family.  He  was  Acting  Principal,  in  the 
absence  of  that  officer,  and  inclined  naturally  to  strict 
discipline;  but  he  will  be  long  remembered  by  many,  who 
came  under  his  tuition,  for  his  thorough  familiarity  with 
the  Greek  and  Latin  courses. 

A  part  of  this  time,  from  the  accession  of  Dr.  Judd  in 
1807,  to  the  close  of  Dr.  RaiFerty's  incumbency,  was  the 
period  of  St.  John's  hardest  struggle  to  retain  its  right 
to  be  known  by  its  well-earned  title  of  a  college.  Stripped 
in  1806  of  its  whole  revenue  derived  from  the  State,  as 
we  have  seen,  it  yet  sent  forth  two  graduates  in  1810,  each 
with  the  degree  of  B.  A.,  one  of  whom  subsequently  be- 
came the  first  territorial  Judge  of  Florida  upon  the  acqui- 
sition of  that  territory  by  the  United  States,  and  the  other 
lived,  and  died  but  a  few  years  since — an  octogenerian — 
in  the  city  whSre  stands  his  Alma  Mater.  Alumni  and  citi- 
zens of  Annapolis,  ye  well  may  dwell  a  moment  upon  the 
memory  of  Dr.  John  Ridout.  His  name  and  that  of  his 
senior — Dr.  Dennis  Claude,  an  alumnus  of  1799,  who  pre- 
ceded him  in  death  but  a  few  years — must  bring  home  to 
many  of  you,  still  living,  memories  of  two  men — noble 
specimens  of  God's  noblest  work.  Dispensing  good 
wherever  they  came, — "they  knew  their  art  but  not  their 
trade."  Not  alone  shall  their  children  rise  up  and  call 
them  blessed.  Many  of  us  can  see,  in  our  mind's  eye, 
these  lovable,  goodly  men,  and  of  each  one  we  may  verily 
say:  "  He  was  a  man,  take  him  for  all  in  all,  I  shall  not 
look  upon  his  like  again."  Dr.  Claude  belonged  to  that 
rare  school  best  described  by  an  anecdote  told  of  the  State 
Treasurer,  Mr.  George  Mackubin,  another  alumnus  of  St. 
John's,  of  the  class  of  1806,  at  whose  death  Dr.  Claude 


91 


succeeded  to  the  office.  When  Mr.  Mackubin  was  first 
tendered  this  office  of  Treasurer,  he  said  he  could  not  ac- 
cept it,  consistently  with  his  ideas  of  propriety,  because 
he  was  a  stockholder  in  the  bank  in  which  the  funds  of 
the  State  had  for  years  been  kept  on  deposit.  When  urged 
to  accept,  as  a  matter  of  duty,  he  promptly  sold  every 
share  of  his  stock  in  that  bank  before  he  qualified  as  cus- 
todian of  the  State's  funds.  Dr.  Claude  was  a  man  tall 
in  stature,  erect,  and  of  dignified  mien,  with  elegant  and 
courtly  manners.  His  kindly  eye  was  yet  as  piercing  as 
an  eagle's.  When  a  surgeon  in  the  Army,  tradition  says, 
he  fought  a  duel  with  General  Winfield  Scott,  both  then 
young  men.  A  knightly  antagonist,  truly,  for  the  great 
soldier,  who,  as  he  rode  down  the  line  in  review  of  his 
troops,  man  and  horse  of  colossal  proportions,  in  full  sight 
of  the  Mexican  forces,  is  said  by  one  of  his  officers  to  have 
looked  the  very  god  of  war.  General  Scott  in  his  Memoirs 
makes  mention  of  Dr.  Claude  in  kindly  terms. 

From  the  next  year,  1811,  to  1830,  inclusive,  among 
the  graduates  and  alumni  of  St.  John's  appear  names  of 
men  distinguished  in  the  State  and  Nation,  and  of  these, 
in  the  order  of  class-years,  the  names  of  Reverdy  John- 
son, U.  S.  Senator,  Attorney-General  of  the  U.  S.,  and 
Minister  to  England;  Thomas  Stockett  Alexander,  LL. 
D. ;  John  Johnson,  Chancellor  of  the  State;  Hon.  Alex- 
ander Randall,  M.  A.,  Member  of  Congress  and  Attor- 
ney-General of  Maryland;  John  Henry  Alexander,  LL. 
D. ;  the  Right  Rev.  William  Pinkney,  LL.  D.,  Episcopal 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Maryland  and  the  District  of 
Columbia;  the  Hon.  William  H.  Tuck,  M.  A.,  Judge  of 
the  Court  of  Appeals  of  Maryland;  and  Surgeon  Ninian 


92 


Pinkney,  LL.  D.,  Medical  Director,  U.  S.  Navy.  The 
versatile  genius  of  John  Henry  Alexander,  distinguished 
in  the  Church,  in  letters,  science  and  the  Muses,  who  was 
graduated  in  1827,  when  less  than  fifteen  years  of  age,  has 
illumined  both  Europe  and  America.  The  mere  mention 
of  these  names  shows  that  St.  John's  can  boast  of  more 
jewels  than  did  Cornelia.  The  Gracchi  were  but  a  single 
pair,  but  their  Alma  Mater,  in  the  persons  of  the  two 
brothers  Johnson,  the  brothers  Alexander,  and  the  broth- 
ers Pinkney,  has  given  the  State  a  diadem  of  brilliants, 
as  a  crown  forever. 

The  name  of  another  alumnus  must  be  added  to  this 
period,  and  linked  with  that  of  one  of  the  class  of  1799. 
I  allude  to  Judges  Nicholas  Brewer  and  Thomas  Beale 
Dorsey — citizens  respectively  of  Annapolis  and  of  the 
County.  Judges  Dorsey  and  Brewer  were  so  long  asso- 
ciated on  the  bench,  their  faces,  for  years,  were  so  famil- 
iar to  the  citizens  of  this  judicial  circuit,  that  their  names 
are  indissolubly  associated  together  by  its  bar  and  citi- 
zens. These  gentlemen  belong  among  the  brightest  of 
the  array  of  jurists  of  the  country.  They  adorned  the 
bench  of  their  own  State — compeers  of  Marshall,  Taney, 
B.  E.  Curtis  and  Story.  Judge  Dorsey  died  in  1855,  and 
Judge  Brewer  like  him  was  gathered  to  the  sleep  of  the 
valiant  and  just,  in  1864.  The  triumvirate  of  Maryland's 
judiciary  among  the  older  alumni  of  St.  John's  would  be 
incomplete  without  here  adding  the  name  of  that  learned, 
wise  and  good  man,  Judge  Alexander  Contee  Magruder, 
an  alumnus  of  1794,  a  member  of  the  Executive 'Council, 
State  Senator,  and  Judge,  and  Official  Keporter,  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals. 


93 


During  this  period  of  noble  work  on  the  part  of  the  Col- 
lege, it  appears  from  a  brief  sketch  of  St.  John's,  pub- 
lished in  1835,  that:  "  In  1821,  atameetingof  the  Alumni, 
inthe  Senate  Chamber  at  Annapolis,  a  plan  of  subscrip- 
tion was  drawn  up,  a  condition  being  inserted  that  the 
whole  should  be  void,  unless  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars should  be  obtained.  Several  names  were  subscribed 
upon  the  spot,  but  no  agent  was  appointed;  the  requisite 
sum  was  not  obtained,  and  the  subscription  paper  has  been 
lost.  The  only  record  of  it  that  remains  is  the  payment 
of  the  following  sum,  which  was  discharged  by  the  donor, 
though  not  required  to  do  so  by  the  terms: 

''Isaac  McKim $200." 

But  the  Rev.  Hector  Humphreys,  D.  D. ,  when  but  thirty- 
four  years  of  age,  was  elected  Principal  of  the  College  in 
1831,  and  held  this  office  until  1857.  Largely  through  his 
immediate  efforts  the  college  was  saved  to  continue  its 
beneficent  career,  instead  of  collapsing  without  further 
struggle.  At  the  annual  commencement  in  1832,  Dr. 
Humphreys  delivered  his  inaugural  address  before  the  com- 
pany assembled,  and  by  it  inspired  the  confidence  of  the 
public  in  himself  and  in  his  abilities.  A  confidence  which 
in  the  course  of  his  career,  he  more  than  fulfilled. 
Brighter  prospects  immediately  dawned  upon  the  college. 
We  are  told  by  Mr.  Proud  *that  to  the  President's  "perse- 
vering efforts,  and  personal  influence  with  members  of  the 
Legislature,  is  also  in  a  great  measure  to  be  attributed 
the  Act  of  Compromise  of  1832. "  By  this  act,  the  State 
agreed  to  add  two  thousand  dollars  to  the  sum  of  one  thou- 


94 


sand  dollars  granted  annually  in  1811,  as  heretofore  said, 
and  added  to  the  Board  of  Visitors  and  Governors,  as  mem- 
bers ex-qfficio,  for  the  time  being,  the  Governor  of  the 
State,  the  President  of  the  Senate,  the  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Delegates,  the  Chancellor  of  the  State,  and  the 
Judges  of  the  Court  of  Appeals ;  the  Governor  being  ex- 
officio  the  President  of  the  Board.    The  citizens  of  the  State 
then  came  bravely  to  the  rescue  under  Dr.  Humphreys' 
active  efforts  in  St.  John's  behalf.     By  a  resolution  of  the 
Board  of  Visitors  and  Governors,  adopted  February  15th, 
1834,  the  Doctor  was  appointed  with  others  upon  a  com- 
mittee to  solicit  subscriptions  for  the  benefit  of  the  college, 
to  be  applied  to  the  erection  of  buildings  and  other  im- 
provements.    Travelling    throughout    the    State,    Dr. 
Humphreys  succeeded  in  securing  about  eleven  thousand 
dollars  for  this  purpose,  as  appears  by  a  long  list  of  sub- 
scribers containing  the  names  of  many  citizens  of  the 
State.     The  large  building  on  the  south  side  of  McDowell 
Hall  (since  called  Humphreys'  Hall,)  was  then  erected 
with  these  funds  and  from  other  carefully  husbanded  re- 
sources, and  we  are  told  in  the  short  historic  sketch  of 
the  College,  published  in  1835,  to  which  I  have  before 
referred  and  from  which  I  quote,  as  follows:     "The  cere- 
mony of  laying  the  Corner  Stone  was  preceded  by  prayer, 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Humphreys,  the  President  of  the  Col- 
lege.    The  following  inscription,  enclosed  in  a  sealed  glass 
vase,  was  deposited  in  a  metallic  box,  under  the  stone: 

'This  corner-stone  was  laid  on  Thursday,  the  18th  day 
of  June,  A.  D.,  1835,  by  the  Hon.  John  Stephen,  Presid- 
ing Judge  in  the  Court  of  Appeals,  the  Rev.  Hector  Hum- 
phreys, D.  D.,  President  of  St.  John's  College,  and  John 


95 


Johnson,  Esq.,  one  of  the  Visitors  and  Governors  being 
present  and  assisting;  His  Excellency,  Andrew  J^mson, 
being  President  of  the  United  States;  His  Excellency 
James  Thomas,  being  Governor  of  Maryland,  and  the 
Hon.  John  S.  Martin,  Thomas  Veazey,  George  C.  Wash- 
ington, Nathaniel  F.  Williams,  and  Gwinn  Harris,  being 
the  Executive  Council;  and  Dr.  Dennis  Claude  being- 
Mayor  of  Annapolis. 

Ramsay  Waters,  ^ 

John  Johnson,  V  Building  Committee. ' ' ' 

Nicholas  Brewer,  Jr.,  J 

Upon  this  occasion  the  Presiding  Judge  of  the  Court 
of  Appeals  made  the  dedicatory  remarks  appropriate  to 
the  ceremony,  and  the  orator  of  the  day — the  Hon.  John 
Johnson  (subsequently  the  last  of  Maryland's  chancel- 
lors) made  a  most  forcible  and  eloquent  address.  Nulli- 
Jication  as  a  remedy  for  the  evils  complained  of  had  but 
recently  strained  the  country  to  the  verge  of  civil  war, 
but  the  Chancellor,  while  expressing  thorough  belief  that 
the  "victims"  were  honest  in  their  errors,  with  great 
perspicuity  and  force  pointed  out  their  "delitsion."  His 
patriotic  address  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  archives  of 
the  Nation. 

More  than  twenty  years  later,  August  5,  1857,  by  reso- 
lution of  the  Alumni  Association,  the  name  of  Humphreys' 
Hall  was  formally  conferred  upon  this  building.  In  the 
meantime,  between  1855  and  1857,  the  Professors'  block 
of  houses  was  built  on  the  South  side  of  Humphreys'  Hall ; 
and  Pinkney  Hall  and  the  Principal's  and  Vice-Prin- 
Kiipal's  houses  were  built  on  the  North  side  of  McDowell 


96 


Hall,  which  about  this  time  had  this  name  formally  con- 
ferred upon  it. 

Ably  seconded  by  a  faculty  consisting  of  Professors  of 
Ancient  Languages,  Mathematics,  Modern  Languages, 
English  studies  and  of  the  Grammar  Department,  with, 
at  times,  assistants  and  tutors  in  these  departments.  Dr. 
Humphreys  led  a  most  remarkable  career,  which  has  re- 
flected undying  credit  upon  the  institution  under  his 
charge. 

''Hector  Humphreys,"  says  Mr.  Proud,  "was  born  at 
Canton,  Hartford  Co.,  Connecticut,  June  8th,  1797,  the 
youngest  member  of  a  family  often  children.  His  father, 
George  Humphreys,  was  the  fifth  of  a  long-lived  family 
of  five  sons  and  five  daughters,  and  held  several  public 
offices  with  credit,  having  been  a  Judge  of  the  Court  of 
Probate,  and  a  representative,  for  nearly  twenty  years, 
of  his  native  town  in  the  General  Assembly. "  Dr.  Hum- 
phreys ''entered  Yale  College  a  freshman  in  September, 
1814,  as  one  of  a  class  of  one  hundred  *  *  *  and  his 
college  course  was  a  succession  of  triumphs,  terminated 
at  the  commencement  of  1818,  by  his  taking  the  first 
honors  without  a  rival,  in  the  estimation  of  the  faculty, 
or  his  class-mates,  to  dispute  his  claim." 

Upon  leaving  college  Dr.  Humphreys  studied  law.  '  'In 
due  course  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  opened  an 
office  in  New  Haven,  which  he  occupied  for  about  'one 
year;  having  received  from  Gov.  Wolcott  the  appoint- 
ment of  Judge  Advocate  of  the  State."  Subsequently, 
circumstances  caused  him  to  enter  the  Episcopal  Church 
and  "he  was  ordained  Presbyter,  March  6th,  1825,  by 
Bishop  Brownell,"  in  the  meantime  having  been  a  pro- 


97 


feasor  of  ancient  languages  in  Washington  (now  Trinity) 
College,  Hartford,  "which  presided  over  by  Bishop  Brow- 
nell,  numbered  among  its  members  the  present  Bishop 
Doane  of  New  Jersey,  Bishop  Horatio  Potter  of  New  York, 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Hawkes  and  other  men  of  kindred  mind  and 
attainments."  During  this  time  he  had  also  "officiated 
with  great  acceptableness  and  with  marked  success,  as 
Rector  of  St.  Luke's  Church,  Glastonbury,  about  eight 
miles  from  Hartford." 

These  facts  are  gathered  from  Mr,  Proud's  "Biograph- 
ical Sketch"  of  Dr.  Hum-phreys,  read  at  the  Annual 
Commencement  of  St.  John's  College  August  5,  1857, 
and  published  by  request  of  the  Association  of  the  Alumni . 
In  this  same  paper  the  author  referring  to  Dr.  Hum- 
phreys' work  at  St.  John's,  further  states: 

"Besides  the  oral  and  experimental  lectures  elicited  by 
the  daily  recitations,  there  were  stated  courses  of  written 
lectures,  each  one  hour  in  the  delivery,  illustrating  with 
severe  and  faithful  minuteness  the  several  branches 
taught.  I  have  seen  a  list  in  his  own  hand-writing  of 
the  titles  of  these  lectures,  with  headings  of  their  varied 
subjects, — which  embraced  fourteen  in  Political  Economy, 
twenty-seven  in  Latin  and  Greek  Literature,  twenty-seven 
in  Chemistry  and  Geology,  thirty-four  in  Natural  Phi- 
losophy, and  six  in  Astronomy — making  one  hundred  and 
eight  lectures  delivered  by  him  in  the  regular  annual 
course,  besides  the  several  recitations  of  each  day!" 

I  would  be  undutiful  did  I  not  here  add,  to  that  of 
others,  my  own  testimony  to  the  eminent  worth,  zeal  and 
wonderful  acquirements  of  this  truly  pious  and  remark- 
able man.     As  boys  in  the  Grammar  Department  we  all 
7 


98 


felt  a  sense  of  respect,  amounting  to  awe,  whenever  we 
chanced  to  be  in  Dr.  Humphreys'  presence.  These  feel- 
ings changed  to  love  and  veneration  when  we  came  under 
his  instruction.  By  his  exertions  and  direction  was  pro- 
cured a  well  selected  philosophical  apparatus,  for  use  in 
different  branches  of  physics,  and  a  cabinet  of  minerals, 
fossils,  and  shells,  and  a  collection  of  soils  and  marls  from 
different  parts  of  the  State.  He  directed  the  construc- 
tion and  outfit  of  a  very  good  laboratory,  and  he  was  the 
custodian  of  the  standard  instruments  of  weight  and 
measure  belonging  to  the  State,  the  foundations  and  cases 
for  which  were  built  under  his  directions  in  a  basement 
room  of  McDowell  Hall.  He  knew  not  how  to  be  idle. 
His  work,  while  prodigious,  was  most  painstaking  and 
faithful.  In  chemistry,  besides  our  recitations  from  the 
text-book,  and  his  lectures,  he  carefully,  in  our  presence, 
analysed  soils,  both  qualitatively  and  quantitatively.  He 
instructed  us  in  experimental  philosophy,  and  in  practi- 
cal composition  and  elocution;  and  from  the  most  approved 
treatises  of  the  day,  we  recited  to  him  in  Mineralogy  and 
Geology,  Evidences  of  Christianity,  Moral  and  Intel- 
lectual Philosophy,  Rhetoric  and  Logic.  Under  his  in- 
struction we  studied  Butler's  Analogy,  Kame's  Elements 
of  Criticism,  Elementary  Political  Economy,  and  Kent's 
Commentaries  on  International  Law  and  the  Jurispru- 
dence of  the  United  States.  He  taught  us  the  use  of  the 
quadrant  and  how  to  find  the  latitude  of  a  place  by  a 
meridian  observation,  and  its  longitude  by  time-sights 
and  the  chronometer.  He  discoursed  to  us  on  Astronomy 
and  taught  us  to  use  the  College  telescope,  and  lectured 
upon  most  of  the  subjects  above  named,  besides  instruct- 


99 


ing  us,  in  the  junior  and  senior  years,  in  the  final  courses 
of  Latin  and  Greek,  in  which  languages  he  was  deeply 
versed,  and  in  the  heauties  of  whose  literature  he  took 
great  delight.  He  took  care  in  our  case,  as  was  his  custom 
with  all  the  classes  in  the  senior  year,  to  examine  the 
class  in  and  discourse  upon  English  Grammar,  in  his 
endeavor  to  supplement  a  practical  acquirement  of  the 
mother-tongue  by  an  intelligent  comprehension  of  its 
syntax,  fortified  by  reason  and  rule. 

Dr.  Humphreys'  presence  was  commanding.  He  was 
tall  of  stature,  with  a  noble  face,  and  was  possessed  of  a 
deeply  sonorous  though  melodious  voice.  As  a  pulpit 
orator  he  was  eloquent;  and  his  sermons,  always  deeply 
impressive,  were  often  beautiful  in  poetic  imagery.  He 
was  ever  ready  to  fill  the  pulpit  of  an  absent  brother 
minister,  or  to  assist  in  various  local  duties  of  neighbor- 
ing parishes.  Several  memorial  sermons  of  rare  beauty 
were  delivered  by  him  upon  the  deaths  of  persons  of  emi- 
nent worth  in  the  community.  The  next  to  the  last 
Baccalaureate  sermon  which  he  preached  was  delivered 
to  the  class  of  '55,  in  St.  Anne's  Church.  I  well  recall 
the  circumstances.  He  had  then  lost  all  of  his  sons,  three 
in  number,  the  eldest  a  graduate  of  the  class  of  '41, 
who  subsequently  was  graduated  from  West  Point  and 
died  at  Carlisle  Barracks  from  disease  contracted  in  the 
Mexican  War.  These  bereavements  were  sore  trials,  and 
though  bravely  borne,  served  greatly  to  undermine  his 
health;  and  he  felt  in  1855,  that  his  end  was  not  far  off.  With 
much  effort,  he  delivered  the  sermon.  He  had  not  strength 
to  compose  one  specially  for  the  occasion,  but  delivered 
the  sermon  which  he  had  preached  to  the  class  of  '41, 


100 


of  which  his  son,  Lieutenant  George  S.  Humphreys,  had 
been  a  member,  and  of  which  the  President  of  the  Board 
of  Visitors  and  Governors,  who  has  just  addressed  us,  is 
a  surviving  member, — the  text  being:  ''He  taught  me 
also  and  said  unto  me,  Let  thine  heart  retain  my  words: 
keep  my  commandments  and  live."  (Prov.,  iv.  4).  He 
concluded  this  sermon  somewhat  in  these  words — "What 
I  said  to  the  class  of  '41  I  have  now  said  to  the  class 
of  '55."  And  then  having  referred  to  the  respective 
careers  of  the  members  of  the  former  class,  he  added — 
"and  one  is  not. "  The  congregation  present  was  visibly 
affected,  and  amid  its  profoundest  sympathy  he  pronounced 
the  benediction.  Though  consciously  failing,  he  presided 
at  the  Annual  Commencement  in  1856,  but  ere  the  next 
Commencement  season  came,  he  calmly  passed  away. 
His  death  occurred  the  25th  of  January,  1857,  and  he 
sleeps  the  sleep  of  the  righteous  in  the  beautiful  spot 
hard-bye,  whose  shores  are  laved  by  the  same  waters  that 
lave  the  borders  of  this  campus  (the  scene  for  so  many 
years  of  his  useful  life)  ere  they  mingle  with  the  waters 
of  the  classic  Severn. 

A  funeral  sermon,  appropriately  entitled  "The  Cloud 
of  Witnesses, "  was  delivered  the  8th  of  February,  1857, 
in  St.  Anne's  Church  on  the  occasion  of  Dr.  Humphreys' 
death,  dedicated  to  the  students  of  St.  John's,  by  the 
Eev.  Cleland  K.  Nelson,  D.  D.,  then  Rector  of  St.  Anne's 
Parish.  This  tribute  was  clothed  in  beautiful  language 
from  the  text — "We  also  are  compassed  about  with  so 
great  a  cloud  of  witnesses" — (Hebrews,  xii.  1,)  and 
fitly  perpetuates  the  testimony  to  the  exalted  character 
and  purity  of  life  of  the  deceased. 


101 


The  necrology  prepared  by  Mr.  Proud  includes  the 
names  of  a  number  of  alumni  graduated  during  the  period 
of  Dr.  Humphreys'  incumbency,  all  of  pure  and  upright 
men;  some  of  great  talent  and  promise  ere  they  passed 
away.  But  none  purer  or  more  upright  than  John  G. 
Proud,  Jr.,  of  the  class  of  '34,  belong  to  this,  or  any 
other  period  in  the  history  of  the  College.  He  died  August 
28,  1883.  His  ode  to  ''The  old  Poplar  Tree  of  the  Old 
College  Green"  is  worthy  of  a  place  beside  "Woodman, 
spare  that  Tree."  It  was  read  before  a  meeting  of  the 
alumni,  February  22nd,  1852.  Its  reading  inspired  John 
Henry  Alexander,  impromptu,  to  compose  a  sonnet  to 
the  old  tree,  in  graceful  compliment  to  Mr.  Proud's  verse. 
These  classic  productions,  including  Dr.  John  Shaw's 
beautiful  sonnet,  written  early  in  the  century,  are  as 
deeply  impressed  in  your  memories,  my  brethren  of  the 
alumni,  as  is  the  old  tree  itself,  now  clothed  in  the  exu- 
berant foliage  of  summer's  solstician  season.  May  this 
old  tree  long  survive  to  inspire  the  muse  throughout  gen- 
erations yet  unborn;  and,  when  its  life  shall  have  gone 
out  forever,  may  its  youthful  offspring,  whose  roots  now 
await  but  the  earthy  covering  which  in  a  few  moments 
will  be  laid  upon  them,  by  the  fair  hands  of  the  lady  who 
now  so  graciously  presides  as  Mistress  of  the  Executive 
Mansion,*  then  serve  as  a  land-mark  to  keep  alive  and 
green  for  other  spans  of  years  the  memory  of  the  old  tree 
and  its  legendary  history. 

The  record,  for  this  same  period,  of  those  living  gives 
us  the  names  of  upright  and  talented  occupants  of  the 

*  Mrs.  JacksoD,  wile  of  the  Governor  of  Maryland. 


LTBTlAPwY 

TJinVER?^TTY  OF  ^.^  \-^^0'RmA 

SANTA  JiAEBARA 


102 


pulpit  and  bench,  members  of  tlie  bar,  officers  of  State- 
governments,  and  of  the  Army  and  Navy. 

The  Rev.  ClelandK.  Nelson,  T>.  D.,  worthily  succeeded 
Dr.  Humphreys,  and  assuming  the  office  of  Principal  of 
the  College  in  1857,  retained  the  chair  until  1861.  A 
class  was  graduated  under  his  regime  in  each  of  the  years 
1857, 1858, 1859  and  1860.  The  Law,  Medicine,  the  State, 
the  Church,  the  Army  and  the  Navy,  and  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  claims  each  a  fair  proportion  of  the 
number  of  these  graduates,  about  one-half  of  whom  have 
had  the  degree  of  M.  A.  conferred  upon  them  by  their 
Alma  Mater. 

And  now  comes  a  decade,  half  of  which  may  be  but 
passingly  alluded  to,  in  which  St.  John's  conferred  no 
degree,  nor  sent  forth  from  its  portals  a  graduate.  Grim 
visaged-war  raged  and,  unlike  at  the  Temple  of  Janus, 
the  doors  of  St.  John's  were  closed.  Of  its  youth  thence 
departing,  some — their  warfare  o'er — 

"Dream  of  fighting  fields  no  more, 
Days  of  danger,  nights  of  waking." 

Maryland  lay  on  the  border-line  of  the  conflicting  forces. 
The  dogs  of  war,  once  let  loose,  it  was  practically  all  one 
way  North,  it  was  all  one  way  South.  But  in  the  border- 
commonwealths,  literally  brother  was  arrayed  against 
brother,  father  against  son,  and  son  against  father.  And 
even  tenderer,  the  tenderest  of  all  ties,  were  severed. 
The  Naval  Academy,  a  school  wherein  is  taught  the 
art  of  war,  was  removed  from  Annapolis,  out  of  sound  of 
hostile  cannons'  roar,  that  its  novices  might  study  the 
rudiments   of    their   profession,    undisturbed   by   war's 


103 


alarms;  and  the  grounds  and  buildings  of  St.  John's,  as 
well  as  those  of  the  Naval  Academy,  were  devoted  by  the 
Government,  as  hospitals,  to  the  shelter  and  care  of  sick- 
ness and  suffering.  The  Florence  Nightingale  of  America 
came  with  her  ministering  spirits  and  soothed  the  sorrows 
of  the  dying,  or  nursed  others  to  health  and  strength, 
only  to  return  again  to  scenes  of  carnage. 

But  smiling  peace  again  her  gentle  reign  restored.  And 
may  the  portals  of  St.  John's,  then  reopened  to  fair  learn- 
ing's sway,  never  again  close,  in  either  peace  or  war. 

Before  taking  up  the  new  history  of  St.  John's,  subse- 
quent to  the  suspension  of  its  functions  as  a  College, — 
though  during  such  suspension,  a  school  was  maintained 
by  the  Principal  of  its  Grammar  Department,  Professor 
William  H.  Thompson,  M.  A.,  an  alumnus  of  the  class  of 
'38,  by  virtue  of  its  chartered  rights  and  the  authority 
of  its  Visitors  and  Governors — some  short  account  may  be 
given  of  its  Literary  Societies,  the  Theta,  Delta,  Phi,  and 
the  Everett,  and  of  some  of  the  more  noted  addresses  de- 
livered on  Commencement  days  and  on  other  occasions 
during  the  ante-bellum  period. 

February  22nd,  1827,  Francis  Scott  Key  delivered  an 
address  before  the  Association  of  the  Alumni  and  the  com- 
pany assembled.  It  is  needless  to  add  that,  aside  from  its 
other  merits,  it  expressed  the  depth  of  his  love  and  venera- 
tion for  his  Alma  Mater,  in  terms  becoming  the  nature  and 
abilities  of  its  author.  Upon  a  similar  occasion,  February 
22nd  of  the  following  year,  the  Hon.  John  C.  Herbert,  B. 
A.,  of  Maryland,  of  the  class  of  1794,  delivered  an  address 
of  great  philosophic  force,  and  in  language  most  felicitous 
and  chaste.     The  inaugural  address  of  Dr.  Humphreys, 


104 


in  1832,  and  Hon.  John  Johnson's  address,  in  1835,  upon 
the  occasion  of  the  laying  of  the  Corner  Stone  of  Hum- 
phreys Hall,  have  already  been  referred  to. 

On  July  4th,  1837,  Thomas  Holme  Hagner,  M.  A.,  of 
the  class  of  '35,  a  native  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
then  a  student  of  law  in  Annapolis,  delivered  an  address, 
accompanied  by  the  reading  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, before  the  Theta,  Delta,  Phi  Society.  Upon 
perusal,  this  address,  coming  from  a  recent  graduate,  yet 
pursuing  his  legal  studies,  cannot  fail  to  strike  the  reader 
as  phenomenal.  In  its  display  of  historic  and  philosophic 
knowledge,  and  extent  of  legal  research,  in  its  cogency  of 
reasoning,  beauty  of  diction  and  fire  of  patriotism,  it  is  a 
.  deliverance  which  one  would  suppose  could  only  have  been 
the  product  of  the  highest  intellectual  gifts,  at  the  height 
of  maturity.  The  College  necrology  tells  us  that  he  died 
the  26th  of  March,  1848,  indefatigable  in  his  work  as 
Chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  in  the  first  State 
Legislature  of  Florida.  His  adopted  State  lost  a  coun- 
sellor, in  his  early  death,  at  a  time  when  such  men  could 
least  be  spared. 

On  the  22nd  of  February,  1842,  the  Hon.  John  Tayloe 
Lomax  of  Virginia,  an  alumnus  of  the  class  of  1797,  deliv- 
ered an  address  of  great  beauty,  re-echoing  the  senti- 
ments expressed  by  his  brother  collegian.  Key,  to  whom 
he  feelingly  alluded. 

At  one  of  its  meetings,  held  in  1845,  or  1846,  by  the 
Theta,  Delta,  Phi,  Society,  which  had  been  inaugurated 
about  1832,  some  of  its  members  became  somewhat  hilari- 
ous, we  are  told;  so  much  so  as  to  bring  into  the  midst  of 
the  meeting,  from  his  residence  in  McDowell  Hall,  the 


105 


venerable  form  of  Dr.  Humphreys.  Calling  the  meeting 
to  order,  the  Principal,  or  President  as  he  was  commonly 
called,  addressed  it  thus:  "Young  gentlemen, this  meet- 
ing stands  adjourned  sine  die."  It  is  superfluous,  perhaps, 
to  add  that  the  Theta,  Delta,  Phi,  did  then  and  there 
adjourn  sine  die,  and,  as  a  Society,  was  known  no  more. 
Some  students,  upon  a  former  occasion,  were  assembled 
in  the  Commons,  at  a  convivial  meeting,  so  said  tradition 
when  I  was  at  College,  whereat  they  became  so  boisterous 
as  to  bring  upon  the  scene  the  same  dignified  person.  As 
he  opened  the  door,  one  of  the  students  rose,  and  amid 
the  silence  of  the  awe-stricken  crowd,  looking  the  "Presi- 
dent" straight  in  the  eye,  exclaimed — 

"  Hector,  Hector,  son  of  Priam, 
Did  you  ever  see  a  man  as  drunk  as  I  am  7  " 

The  ready  wit  of  the  speaker,  showing  that  perhaps  the 
condition  of  himself  and  the  others  was  not  so  bad  as  feared, 
probably  caused  the  forgiveness  of  all;  for  it  is  not  told 
that  any  punishments  followed.  The  youthful  hero  of 
this  anecdote,  afterwards  served  his  country,  with  credit, 
in  the  Mexican  War.  He  bears  a  distinguished  name  and 
has  been  awarded  its  highest  honors  by  his  native  State. 
He  is  now  known  as  a  man  of  affairs  among  the  men  of  the 
country. 

On  the  22nd  of  February,  1849,  the  Hon.  Wm.H.  Tuck, 
M.  A.,  of  the  class  of  '27,  delivered  an  address  bearing 
much  on  the  educational  problem  and  requirements  of  the 
times.  This  address  was  marked  by  the  Judge's  well 
known  great  analytic  powers  and  legal  acumen,  and  by 


106 


a  carefully  studied  statistical  review  of  the  subject  under 
consideration. 

On  the  22nd  of  February,  1850,  the  Hon.  Alexander 
Randall,  M.  A.,  of  the  class  of  '22,  delivered  an  address 
largely  bearing,  with  prophetic  warning,  upon  the  war- 
cloud,  then  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand — the  compro- 
mise measures  of  1850  then  pending  before  Congress. 
With  great  force,  the  treasures  of  the  Union,  as  set  forth 
by  the  Father  of  his  Country,  and  the  great  men  of  the 
nation,  and  the  moral  of  the  Roman  fasces,  illustrated  in 
the  national  motto,  "E  Pluribus  Unum,"  were  brought 
before  the  assembled  company  of  students,  alumni  and 
citizens,  the  address  concluding  with  the  verse: — 

"  Then  conquer  we  must,  when  our  cause  it  is  just, 
And  this  be  our  motto, — 'In  God  is  our  trust,' 
And  the  Star  Spangled  Banner  in  triumph  shall  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave  !  " 

But  a  few  years  since  (June  14,  1877)  passed  the  cen- 
tennial day  of  the  adoption  of  that  Star  Spangled  Banner 
by  Congress,  one  hundred  and  twelve  years  ago  this  month, 
in  substantially  the  present  form,  the  stars  and  stripes 
numbering  thirteen  of  each.  In  1794,  by  resolution  of 
Congress,  the  stripes  as  well  as  stars  were  made  to  num- 
ber fifteen,  then  the  number  of  States.  But  in  1818  the 
stripes  were  reduced,  by  resolution  of  Congress,  to  thir- 
teen, and  provision  was  made  to  increase  the  stars  to  the 
number  of  States  as  new  States  should  be  admitted  into 
the  Union.  May  we  not  here  well  recall,  with  those  words 
of  Key  above  quoted,  the  following  lines  in  that  familiar 
apotheosis  composed  by  the   youthful  Joseph  Rodman 


107 


Drake,  collaborator  with  Bryant  and  Halleck  in  their  early- 
days,  and  author  of  "The  Culprit  Fay"  : — 

"  Flag  of  the  free,  heart's  hope,  heart's  home, 

By  angel-hands  to  valor  given. 
Thy  stars  have  lit  the  welkin  dome. 

And  all  thy  hues  were  born  of  heaven. 
Forever  float  that  standard  sheet, 

Where  breathes  the  foe  but  falls  before  us, 
With  freedom's  soil  beneath  our  feet 

And  freedom's  banner  floating  o'er  us !  " 

The  Legislature  of  Maryland,  at  its  last  session,  appro- 
priated a  sum  of  money  to  assist  the  ''  Francis  Scott  Key 
Monument  Association  "  in  erecting  a  monument  to  Key's 
memory,  in  the  further  adornment  of  the  Monumental 
City.  May  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  not  longer 
defer  the  erection  of  a  tomb  to  mark  the  spot  in  Frederick 
City  where  lie  the  remains  of  the  Nation's  patriot  and  poet. 

On  the  Commencement  days  of  February  23d,  1852,  Feb- 
ruary 22nd,  1855,  and  August  6th,  1856,  addresses  were 
delivered  respectively  by  the  Rev.  William  Pinkney,  Dr. 
Ninian  Pinkney,  and  Dr.  Russell  Trevett,  Professor  of  An- 
cient Languages  at  St.  John's.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say 
more  of  these  addresses  than  that  they  bore  the  stamp  of 
the  men — the  erudition  and  graceful  and  poetic  language 
of  the  Bishop;  the  native  oratorical  force  of  the  Surgeon; 
and  the  cultivation  and  classic  lore  of  the  Professor. 

The  Everett  Literary  Society  took  its  rise  about  1857, 
but  terminated  its  existence  in  1861. 

Turning  now  to  the  Phoenix — St.  John's  of  1866 — its 
Visitors  and  Governors,  obtaining  the  means  and  encour- 


108 


agement  voted  to  it  in  that  year  by  the  Legislature,  as 
heretofore  told,  elected  Henry  Barnard,  LL.  D.,  then  but 
recently  the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education,  Principal 
of  the  College.  Dr.  Barnard  organized  its  several  depart- 
ments anew,  and  with  a  preparatory  department,  a  fresh- 
man class  and  a  faculty  of  professors,  St.  John's  again 
engaged  in  the  educational  work  of  making  men  and 
scholars  of  the  youth  in  its  charge.  Dr.  Barnard  had 
travelled  over  the  State,  making  interest  for  the  College, 
and  was  very  active  in  his  efforts  to  restore  it  to  fame,  but 
after  opening  the  College,  in  September,  1866,  he  remained 
in  office  less  than  a  year,  resigning  in  the  following  sum- 
mer.    He  is  now  residing  at  Hartford,  Connecticut. 

Dr.  James  C.  Welling,  LL.  D.,  succeeded  Dr.  Barnard, 
as  Principal,  and  the  College-term  opened  in  September, 
1867,  under  his  charge,  with  one  hundred  and  fifteen  stu- 
dents. Dr.  Welling  resigned  in  1870,  and  has  held,  for 
years,  the  chair  of  President  of  Columbian  University. 
Under  his  administration  no  class  was  graduated  from 
St.  John's,  but  the  junior  class  completed  its  junior  year. 
That  Dr.  Welling's  administration  was  eminently  effi- 
cient and  successful  we  have  the  testimony,  than  which 
none  could  be  higher,  of  Professor  Hiram  Corson,  LL.  D., 
of  Cornell  University,  who  tells  us,  in  an  address  delivered 
on  the  7th  of  July,  1875,  at  the  annual  Commencement  on 
that  day  at  St.  John's,  that,  "a  great  impulse  was  im- 
parted to  the  prosperity  of  the  College,  by  the  faithful 
and  energetic  administration  of  Dr.  Welling. ' '  He  adds : 
"When  he  resigned  *  *  *  the  college  had  made  a  great 
move  forward  in  the  scholarship  of  its  students,  some  of 
whom,  now  before  me,  would  have  done  honor  to  the  classes 


109 


of  the  best  equipped  Colleges  of  the  land. ' '  Professor  Cor- 
son was  then  attached  to  Cornell,  having  resigned  his  pro- 
fessorship of  Anglo-Saxon  and  English  Literature  and 
Elocution,  held  by  him  at  St.  John's  from  1867  to  1870. 

Dr.  Welling  was  succeeded  by  James  M.  Garnett, 
LL.  D.,  in  October  of  the  same  year,  1870,  who  held  the 
chair  of  Principal  for  ten  years.  Dr.  Garnett 's  numer- 
ous able  reports  to  the  General  Assembly,  his  researches 
into  the  financial  legislation  afiecting  the  College  and 
into  its  general  history,  and  his  able  farewell  address  to 
the  students,  delivered  on  Commencement  Day,  the  30th 
of  June,  1880,  all  show  his  devotion  to  their  welfare  and 
to  that  of  the  College.  A  class,  each  year,  was  graduated 
during  his  whole  term  of  office. 

Dr.  Garnett  was  immediately  succeeded  by  the  Rev. 
John  McDowell  Leavitt,  D.  D.,  who  continued  four  years 
as  Principal.  A  distinguishing  feature  of  his  adminis- 
tration was  a  radical  departure  frorfi  the  traditional  cur- 
riculum of  old  St.  John's,  Of  the  classic  sect  it  had 
theretofore  been  of  the  strictest.  Dr.  Leavitt  organized  a 
Department  of  Mechanical  Engineering,  obtained  the 
detail  of  an  Engineer  Officer  by  the  Navy  Department,  as 
instructor  in  mathematics  and  engineering,  and  started 
the  equipment  of  a  machine  shop  for  practical  instruction. 
He  also  endeavored  to  obtain  the  services  of  an  officer 
of  the  Army  as  instructor  in  military  tactics  and  other 
branches  of  learning  necessary  to  the  education  of  a  sol- 
dier. This  detail,  however,  came  later.  A  class  was 
graduated  during  each  year  of  Dr.  Leavitt's  term  of  office. 
Dr.  Leavitt  thus,  before  taking  his  departure,  placed  St. 
John's  squarely  up  with  the  times,  and  en  rapport  with  the 


110 


junior  institutions  of  the  country  which  had  sprung  up 
with  its  growth.  He  resigned  in  1884,  and  now  pursues 
the  intellectual  delights  of  literary  labor  in  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.  He  has  come  back  to  be  present  to-day  with  us, 
and  the  gracefill  muse  of  this  scholar  among  the  literati 
of  the  times  will,  before  we  part,  sing  to  us,  by  request 
of  the  Alumni,  a  poem  in  commemoration  of  St,  John's 
One  Hundreth  natal  day. 

Upon  the  departure  of  Dr.  Leavitt,  the  curriculum  of 
the  College  was  preserved,  its  interest  stoutly  maintained, 
and  the  duties  of  Principal  performed,  by  Professor  Wil- 
liam Hersey  Hopkins,  M.  A.,  Ph.  D.,  long  a  faithful 
professor  at  the  College,  and  an  alumnus  of  the  class  of 
'59.  During  his  term  of  office  an  Army  officer  was  added 
to  the  corps  of  professors.  Two  classes  were  graduated 
under  the  administration  of  Acting  Principal  Hopkins, 
in  1885  and  1886;  after  which  he  resigned  his  position  at 
St.  John's  to  accept  the  presidency  of  the  Woman's  Meth- 
odist College  in  Baltimore,  over  which  he  still  presides. 
Principal  Thomas  Fell,  LL.  D.,  now  holds  the  adminis- 
tration of  St.  John's,  having  been  elected  in  1886,  the 
term-course  of  that  year  commencing  under  his  executive 
authority.  His  zeal  and  activity  manifested  in  the  con- 
duct of  the  affairs  of  the  College  are  well  known  to  you, 
my  brethren  of  the  Alumni,  and  in  particular  to  those  of 
you  who  are  Visitors  and  Governors,  who  are  doubtless 
satisfied  that  he  will  take  care  that  your  rules  are  faith- 
fully executed.  A  class  was  graduated  in  1887,  and  an- 
other in  1888,  and  to-morrow  the  class  of  '89  will  be 
awarded  its  degrees,  leaving  college-classes  in  regular 
order  of  succession,  and  a  full  corps  of  professors  in  its 


Ill 


several  Departments,  including  an  Army  Officer,  a  gra- 
duate of  West  Point,  and  an  Engineer  Officer,  a  gradu- 
ate of  the  Naval  Academy.  A  special  Preparatory  De- 
partment also  exists,  for  the  instruction  of  candidates 
for  entrance  to  the  Naval  Academy. 

Since  the  closing  of  the  hiatus  in  the  work  of  the  Col- 
lege in  1866,  the  sons  which  St.  John's  has  given  to 
the  world  have  well  fulfilled  their  missions.  The  Church, 
the  Law  and  Medicine,  and  various  other  departments 
of  human  effort  and  industry  have  heen  enriched  by  their 
presence  and  energies.  The  survivors  are  yet  young 
enough  to  reach  the  summit  of  their  several  vocations 
or  ambitions.  One  of  the  class  of  '72  already  adorns  the 
Supreme  Bench  of  Baltimore  City,*  and  another,  of  the 
class  of  '73,  is  an  eloquent  divine  who,  as  the  orator  of 
the  day  by  request  of  the  Alumni,  will  address  you,  and 
upon  whose  time  I  fear  I  have  already  too  long  intruded. 
Another  son.  Commander  Dennis  Mullan  of  the  Navy, 
bearing  at  the  time  St.  John's  honorary  degree  of  M.  A., . 
was  on  duty  with  his  brother  heroes  in  the  recent  Samoan 
hurricane,  and,  of  her  dead,  Lieutenant  James  Lockwood 
of  the  Army,  died  after  extending  the  "boundary  of 
known  land  twenty-eight  miles  nearer  the  pole,"  reach- 
ing the  "most  northerly  point  on  land  and  that  ever  has 
been  attained  by  man." 

Among  notable  addresses  delivered  before  the  alumni 
and  Philokalian  and  Philomathean  Societies  of  the  Col- 
lege, which  Societies  were  established  soon  after  1866, 
are  those,  in  the  order  of  their  delivery,  of  the  Hon.  Fred- 

*Hoii.  Henry  David  Harlan. 


112 


erick  Stone,  M.  A.,  of  Charles  County,  July  29tli,  1868, 
an  alumnus  of  '39,  and  a  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals ;  the 
Hon.  Geo.  Wm.  Brown,  LL.  D.,  of  the  Baltimore  Bar  and 
Bench,  July  27th,  1869;  the  Rev.  Orlando  Hutton,  D.  D., 
July  27th,  1870,  an  alumnus  of  '34;  Dr.  James  C.  Welling, 
July  25th,  1871;  the  Hon.  Alexander  B.  Hagner,  a  son 
of  Princeton  upon  whom  St.  John's  has  conferred  the  de- 
gree of  LL.  D.,  July  30th,  1872;  Surgeon  Ninian  Pinkney, 
July  29th,  1873;  the  Hon.  Andrew  G.  Chapman,  M.  A.,  of 
Charles  County,  July  30th,  1873,  an  alumnus  of  '58;  a 
Baccalaureate  sermon  delivered  by  the  Rev,  Thomas  U. 
Dudley,  D.  D.,  June  28th,  1874,  of  Christ  Church,  Bal- 
timore, now  Bishop  of  Kentucky;  the  address  of  Professor 
Hiram  Corson,  above  referred  to,  July  7th,  1875;  the 
farewell  address  of  Dr.  Garnett,  before  referred  to,  June 
30th,  1880;  and  an  address  by  Dr.  Leavitt,  on  the  "En- 
gine, Anvil,  Lathe  and  Foundry,"  delivered  the  15th  of 
June,  1881. 

Of  various  Reports,  Memorials,  and  other  papers  pre- 
pared at  different  times,  by  the  Board  of  Visitors  and 
Governors,  officers  of  the  college  and  others,  addressed 
to  the  citizens  of  the  State  and  the  General  Assembly, 
time  does  not  suffice  to  make  special  mention.  Much  of 
the  matter  therein  contained  has  been  condensed  in  these 
pages.  But  a  moment's  time  may  be  spared  here  to  make 
brief  reference,  in  particular  to  the  addresses,  in  the  list 
above  given,  of  Dr.  Welling  and  the  Hon.  Alex.  B.  Hag- 
ner, Associate  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia.  That  of  Dr.  Welling,  entitled  "  The 
Communion  of  Scholars,  Visible  and  Invisible,"  deliv- 
ered before  the  Philokalian  and  Philomathean  Societies, 


113 


was  not  only  brimming  with  classic  lore,  but  sparkled 
with  originality,  native  wit,  and  expressions  of  good  fel- 
lowship with  his  brethren  of  the  communion.  Judge 
Hagner's  address  before  the  same  Societies,  touching,  in 
our  day,  ''the  universal  diffusion  of  knowledge  among 
men, "  stamped  the  effort  as  the  production  of  the  scholar- 
jurist,  versed  in  science  and  literature,  not  alone  pertain- 
ing to  his  profession,  while  at  the  same  time  possessed  of 
those  other  accomi^lishments  which  impart  dignity  to  the 
law,  through  the  persons  of  its  expounders,  and  compel 
respect  and  obedience  to  its  majesty. 

Its  Register  shows  that  since  the  year  1830,  St.  John's 
has  conferred  the  honorary  degree  of  D.  D.  upon  seven- 
teen distinguished  divines,  and  the  honorary  degree  of 
LL.  D.  upon  twenty-four  scholars,  men  eminent  in  the 
State  and  Nation,  in  addition  to  the  various  degrees  con- 
ferred upon  its  own  graduates,  since  the  year  1793. 

The  College  Library,  many  years  since,  was  enriched 
by  additions  to  its  shelves,  by  bequest  of  Lewis  Neth,  of 
Annapolis,  an  alumnus  of  1806,  and  a  few  years  since  by 
the  gift  of  valuable  works  by  Dr.  Thomas  B.  Wilson,  of 
Philadelphia.  Additions  are  carefully  made,  as  means 
will  permit,  and  its  shelves  now  contain  about  six  thou- 
sand volumes. 

Mention  must  not  be  neglected  of  the  important  ad- 
juncts pertaining  to  athletics.  The  Gymnasium  and  the 
Boat  Club  now  supplement  the  Base-ball  Nine  and  the 
Foot  Ball  Team,  and  St.  John's  cannot  be  defeated  in  any 
competitive  exhibition  where  prizes  are  given  for  the  mens 
Sana  in  corpore  sano. 


8 


114 


My  attempt  to  outline  St.  John's  history  now  rounds 
out  its  hundred  years  of  chartered  existence  as  a  College, 
and  brings  its  career  down  to  the  exercises  of  to-day,  in 
commemoration  of  its  Centenary,  Briefly  now  contrast 
the  limited  environment  of  St.  John's  in  1789  with  its 
present  environment:^ 

In  the  first  place,  we  are  struck  with  this  instance  of 
history  repeating  itself  in  a  certain  round  of  events. 
Under  Queen  Anne  we  have  seen  King  William's  School 
organized,  and  subsequently  transmute  itself,  under  a 
Master  from  Dublin  University,  into  St.  John's  College, 
transferring  both  Master  and  Pupils.  To-day,  under 
Queen  Victoria,  London  University  supplies  St.  John's 
with  its  Principal.  If  Massachusetts  sent  to  the  Puritan 
men  of  Severn  missionaries  to  instruct  them  in  their 
religious  duties,  prior  to  the  birth  of  St.  John's,  to-day 
St.  John's  supplies  one  of  Boston's  pulpits  with  an  alum- 
nus of  '73,*  our  orator  of  the  day,  whose  learning  and 
eloquence  were  his  passports  to  his  call  to  the  Athens  of 
America.  Thus  linked  through  time  as  Boston  and  An- 
napolis are,  the  following  beautiful  passage  from  Bishop 
Pinkney's  address,  before  referred  to,  seems  particularly 
appropriate  to  be  repeated  here: 

"It  is  said  that  Boston  is  eloquent  in  incident  and  asso- 
ciation; and  he  must  be  dead  to  the  beauty  and  power  of 
all  that  is  rich  in  incident  and  thrilling  in  circumstance, 
who  does  not  concede  the  justice  of  the  high  eulogium. 
But  Boston  is  not  a  whit  more  eloquent  in  those  mighty 
springs  of  human  action  than  Annapolis.  If  the  tea-ex- 
ploit of  one  wakes  the  patriot  bosom  of  her  youth  to  high 

*Rev.  Lelgbton  Parke,  M.  A.,  Rector  ot  Emmanuel  Cburcb,  Boston. 


115 


enthusiasm,  tlie  other  boasts  of  a  like  illustrious  exploit. 
If  Washington  blew  the  first  bugle  blast  of  freedom  on 
Boston  heights,  and  unsheathed  beneath  the  old  American 
Elm  the  sword  that  was  to  win  his  country's  freedom, — 
it  was  in  Annapolis  he  returned  it  to  its  scabbard  with- 
out one  dishonoring  stain  upon  it,  when  that  country's 
freedom  was  achieved.  Oh,  then,  do  you  not  see  that  he 
who  would  address  you  on  an  occasion  like  the  present 
must  sink  his  own  personal  insignificance  in  the  glory 
and  grandeur  that  everywhere  surround  him.  'The  past 
is  seciire, '  It  can  never  perish — It  is  written  on  the  page 
of  history. 

"When  that  page  is  closed  and  men  cease  to  read  it 
with  delight,  then,  indeed,  will  national  exaltation  be  a 
dream  and  freedom  live  but  in  name." 

When  the  College  first  opened  its  doors  the  stage-coach 
and  sail-packet  were  the  only  public  means  of  travel 
known,  and  the  horse  the  only  "limited  express."  To- 
day not  only  can  three  thousand  miles  of  ocean  be  crossed 
in  six  days  by  steamship,  but  the  sub-marine  telegraph 
has  well  nigh  encircled  the  globe,  and  London,  New  York 
and  China  converse  by  means  of  a  wire  and  code  of  signs, 
with  the  speed  of  electricity.  And  persons  may  converse 
together  in  articulate  speech  by  means  of  a  wire  uniting 
places  one  hundred  miles  distant.  The  cost  of  develop- 
ing steamship  power  by  the  combustion  of  coal  has  de- 
creased within  the  last  forty  years  more  than  one-half, 
while  the  speed  of  the  ship  has  been  nearly  doubled.  A 
consumption  of  fully  four  pounds  of  coal  per  horse  power 
per  hour  has  been  decreased  to  a  consumption  now  of 
within  two  pounds  per  horse  power  per  hour,  and  the 


116 


speed  has  been  increased  from  about  twelve  geographical 
miles  per  hour  then,  to  twenty  geographical  miles  per 
hour  now,  with  this  latter  reduced  consumption  of  coal. 
These  achievements  are  significant  far  in  excess  of  the 
mere  numerical  values  mentioned.  The  transmitting  and 
receiving  instruments  of  the  electric  telegraph  remained 
in  all  essentials  the  same  as  those  used  by  Professor  Morse 
when  Miss  Ellsworth  dictated  the  words — ''What  hath 
God  wrought!"  sent  over  the  first  telegraph  line  con- 
structed in  1844,  from  Washington  to  Baltimore,  until 
it  occurred  to  Philip  Keis  and  others  that  a  transmitting 
instrument  sufficiently  sensitive  might  be  operated  by  the 
air  set  in  motion  by  vocal  and  other  sounds,  instead  of 
by  the  hand,  and  by  thus  effecting  the  alternate  opening 
and  closing  of  the  ''electric  circuit"  to  transmit  to  a 
receiving  instrument  sufficiently  sensitive,  vibrations 
(similar  to  those  imparted  to  the  transmitting  instru- 
ment) the  air  waves  produced  by  which,  acting  upon  the 
ear,  would  there  resolve  themselves  into  the  same  sounds 
as  those  transmitted.  Reis  and  others  succeeded  in  so 
transmitting  vocal  and  some  other  sounds,  but  not  human 
speech.  It  remained  for  Professor  A,  Graham  Bell,  en- 
couraged, in  pursuing  his  investigations,  by  Professor 
Joseph  Henry  (to  whom  the  world  is  indebted  for  the  in- 
vention of  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph)  to  declare,  in 
about  the  year  1876,  the  law,  and  show  the  error  which 
had  confronted  Reis  and  others.  Bell  demonstrated 
graphically  and  by  written  description,  that  articulate 
speech  could  only  be  transmitted  over  a  "closed  circuit;" 
not  by  making  and  breaking  the  electric  circuit,  as  is 
done  in  telegraphing  sounds  or  signs,  and  which  was  the 


117 


theory  upon  which  Reis  and  others  sought  the  accomplish- 
ment of  transmitting  articulate  speech,  and  failed.  The 
mystery  solved  hy  Bell's  discovery,  scientific  and  other 
mechanics  soon  improved  Bell's  primitive  instruments,  a 
notahle  improvement  heing  the  carbon-transmitter,  the 
invention  of  Mr.  Thomas  A.  Edison,  the  electrician  of 
world-wide  fame.  Passing  by  any  mention,  except  by 
name,  of  the  locomotive,  which  supplanted  the  stage- 
coach, and  of  the  phonograph,  graphophone,  electric 
motors  and  dynamos,  the  latter  being  now  the  rival  of  the 
gas-light  plant,  we  are  confronted  with  the  questions: 
What  next — and  what  is  to  be  the  outcome  of  these  marvels 
in  science  and  art  developed  into  practical  inventions? 
The  university,  the  college,  and  the  workshop  have 
wrought  these  changes,  in  the  past  century,  and  a  con- 
dition of  humanity  consequent  thereupon, — to  some 
thinkers  a  disastrous  condition.  From  its  Greek  text 
Professor  Corson  in  his  comprehensive  and  masterly 
address,  heretofore  mentioned,  quotes  a  beautiful  trans- 
lation in  the  following  sentence: 

''Unfortunately  for  the  intuition  of  this  age,  its  ma- 
terialism and  its  positivism  have  induced  'a  condition  of 
humanity  which  has  thrown  itself  wholly  on  its  intellect 
and  its  genius  in  physics,  and  has  done  marvels  in  ma- 
terial science  and  invention,  but  at  the  expense  of  the 
interior  divinity.'  " 

But  the  Professor  does  not  at  all  despair  of  the  preser- 
vation of  the  interior  divinity.  Indeed  he  supplies  in  his 
own  words  an  antidote  to  the  danger  of  any  such  destruc- 
tion, beautifully  expressed  in  the  following  language: 


118 


''There  is  a  time  better  than  any  other,  in  a  human 
life,  for  the  exercise  of  intuitive  instinct,  sensibility, 
emotion,  imagination,  and  a  time  for  the  exercise  of  the 
analytic  and  discursive  faculties — a  time  to  feel  the  True, 
the  Beautiful  and  the  Good,  and  a  time  to  regard  all  these 
under  intellectual  relations. 

"Now,  it  is  in  mistaking  times  and  seasons,  in  running 
counter  to  the  processes  of  Nature's  growth,  that  a  teacher 
of  the  young  may  do  a  great  wrong,  while  honestly  and 
conscientiously  endeavoring  to  do  a  great  good.  If,  as  is 
too  often  the  case,  he  force  upon  young  minds  instruction 
in  the  form  of  abstract  principles,  and  thus  violently  tear 
open  the  closed  bud  of  reason,  not  yet  ready  to  be  un- 
folded, instead  of  bringing  to  bear  upon  this  tender  bud 
the  genial  warmth  of  sensibility,  sympathy,  and  enthu- 
siasm, and  thus  allowing  it  to  open  in  its  own  good  season, 
he  does  a  wrong  which  can  never,  in  this  world,  be  righted, 
he  inflicts  a  wound  which  no  time  will  heal." 

Sensibility,  sympathy,  and  enthusiasm,  continues  Pro- 
fessor Corson,  ''are  the  elements  of  the  soil  and  the  atmo- 
sphere in  which  the  intellectual,  the  moral,  and  the  re- 
ligious nature  of  a  child  can  alone  germinate  and  grow, 
and  in  later  years  bloom  and  shed  a  wholesome  fragrance ;" 
and  he  contends,  that  these  elements  are  to  be  developed 
and  brought  most  effectually  into  play  "only  through 
concrete  representations  of  the  True,  the  Beautiful  and 
the  Good; — not  through  an  abstract  enunciation  of  prin- 
ciples, not  through  a  code  of  rules  and  a  system  of  teach- 
ing." 

But  is  there  not  left  safety  for  the  interior  divinity 
while  yet  the  art  preservative  of  arts  shall  preserve  these 


119 


words  for  adult  ears,  addressed  to  the  vulcanic  deity  of 
the  village  smithy? — 

"Thanks,  thanks  to  thee,  my  worthy  friend, 
For  the  lesson  thou  hast  taught ; 
Thus  at  the  flaming  forge  of  life 
Our  fortunes  must  be  wrought ; 
Thus  on  its  sounding  anvil  shaped 
Each  burning  deed  and  thought." 

And  yet  while  university,  school  and  workshop  shall 
graduate  an  Alexander  L.  Holley,  who,  prepared  for  the 
classical  course  at  Yale,  was  then,  to  use  a  mechanical 
term,  more  English  than  American,  ''shunted"  there- 
from to  the  scientific  course  at  Brown  University,  whence 
he  stepped  for'a  year  upon  the  footboards  of  the  locomo- 
tive. The  ''thoughtful  locomotive  driver"  Holley  thus 
describes: — "  He  is  clothed  upon,  not  with,  the  mere  ma- 
chinery of  a  larger  organism,  but  with  all  the  attributes 
except  volition  of  a  power  superior  to  his  own.  Every 
faculty  is  stimulated  and  every  sense  exalted.  An  unusual 
sound  amid  the  roaring  exhaust  and  the  clattering  wheels 
tells  him  instantly  the  place  and  degree  of  danger,  as 
would  a  pain  in  his  own  flesh,  *  *  *  a  peculiar  smell  of 
burning  *  *  *,  a  cutting  valve,  a  slipped  eccentric,  a  hot 
journal,  high  water,  low  water,  or  failing  steam;  these 
sensations,  as  it  were,  of  his  outer  body,  become  so  inter- 
mingled with  the  sensations  of  his  inner  body,  that  this 
wheeled  and  fire-feeding  man  feels  rather  than  perceives 
the  varying  stresses  upon  his  mighty  organism." 

Or  while  the  late  Prof.  E.  L.  Youmans  can  be  read  to 
say:— 


120 


''  The  star-suns  of  the  remoter  galaxies  dart  their  ra- 
diations across  the  universe;  and  although  the  distances 
are  so  profound  that  hundreds  of  centuries  have  been  re- 
quired to  traverse  them,  the  impulses  of  force  enter  the 
eye  and  impressing  an  atomic  change  upon  the  nerve,  give 
origin  to  the  sense  of  sight.  Star  and  nerve-tissue  are 
parts  of  the  same  system — stellar  and  nervous  forces  are 
correlated.  Nay,  sensation  awakens  thought  and  kindles 
emotion,  so  that  this  wondrous  dynamic  chain  binds  into 
living  unity  the  realms  of  matter  and  mind  through  mea- 
sureless amplitudes  of  space  and  time.  And  if  these  high 
realities  are  but  faint  and  fitful  glimpses  which  science 
has  obtained  in  the  dim  dawn  of  discovery,  what  must  be 
the  glories  of  the  coming  day  ?  " 

Or  yet  the  genius  of  Bulwer  be  heard  to  exclaim: — 

"All  the  genius  of  the  past  is  in  the  atmosphere  we 
breathe  at  present.  But  who  shall  resolve  to  each  indi- 
vidual star  its  own  rays  of  the  heat  and  the  light  whose 
effects  are  felt  by  all,  whose  nature  is  defined  by  none. 
This  much  at  least  we  know  ;  that  in  heat  the  tendency 
to  equilibrium  is  constant;  that  in  light  the  rays  cross 
each  other  in  all  directions  yet  never  interfere  the  one  with 
the  other.  *  *  *  I  say  not  with  Descartes  '  I  think,  there- 
fore I  am' — rather  'I  am,  therefore  I  think;  I  think,  there- 
fore I  shall  be.'" 

Nor  while  the  sailor  (few  seafaring  men  but  have  poetic 
temperaments  more  or  less  developed  by  their  environ- 
ment)— the  officer  in  command  of  an  American  man-of- 
war,*  could  thus  indite  his  heart's  lay  from  the  Indian 
Ocean  to  his  antipodal  home: — 

•  Capt.  Townshend  commanding  U.  8.  8.  Wachusett.    He  did  not  live  to  reach  home 
tout  died  on  this  cruise. 


121 

"My  own  dear  wife,  dear  boy,  dear  girls, 

The  wealth  of  love  ye  bear  to  me 
Is  richer  than  the  fairest  pearls 

That  glisten  'neath  this  Indian  sea; 
For  gathered  'round  our  simple  hearth, 

Breathing  that  atmosphere  of  love, 
I'd  ask  no  purer  heaven  on  earth. 

Nor  dream  a  happier  heaven  above. 

Yet  far  away  my  treasure  lies 

While  storm-swept  oceans  roll  between, 

The  pole-star  reigning  o'er  those  skies 
Xe'er  gazes  on  this  alien  scene ; 

But  as  I  pace  the  midnight  deck. 
The  Southern  Cross  is  blazing  high ; 

Ah !  heart  estranged,  I  little  reck 

The  splendors  of  this  austral  sky. 

******* 

Vice-gerent  of  the  God  of  light, 

I  cannot  wonder  that  of  old 
The  Magi  worshipped,  as  the  night 

Fled  vanquished  by  thine  orb  of  gold ; 
Our  purer  faith,  our  hopes  God-given, 

Feel  thy  benignant  influence  still. 
Raising  each  earth-bound  soul  toward  heaven. 

Scattering  each  brooding  fear  of  ill." 

And  though  the  late  Professor  John  W.  Draper  attri- 
butes European  civilization  to  the  superiority  of  the  ana- 
lytic quality  of  mind,  as  distinguished  from  the  synthetic 
of  the  Oriental,  telling  us  that:  '/  to  the  work  of  him  who 
pulls  to  pieces  there  is  no  end,  but  he  who  puts  things  to- 
gether comes  to  an  end  of  his  task";  yet  in  contrasting 
the  Pantheistic  with  the  Anthropomorphic  belief,  he  also 
says: — ''the  pantheistic  is  a  grand  but  cold  philosophical 


122 


idea;  the  anthropomorpliic  embodies  our  recollections,  and 
restores  to  us  our  dead.  The  one  is  the  dream  of  the  in- 
tellect, the  other  is  the  hope  of  the  heart." 

Prohihi'ted  by  its  charter  from  inculcating  any  form  of 
religious  worship,  St.  John's  has  ever  sought  by  its  every 
teaching  and  association,  not  only  to  conserve  the  interior 
divinity  but  to  teach  each  student  as  a  man  "  to  carry  his 
own  sovereignty  under  his  hat,"  in  the  possession  of  the 
principles  of  virtue  and  patriotism.  Within  her  walls 
in  my  class-time,  we  were  all  made  familiar  with  the  elo- 
quence, and  appeals  for  governmental  justice,  of  Chatham, 
Burke  and  Grattan;  with  the  force,  beauty  and  patriotic 
fire  of  the  words  of  James  Otis,  Patrick  Henry,  William 
Wirt,  Andrew  Jackson,  Henry  Clay  and  Daniel  Webster; 
and  with  the  noble  diction  of  the  solemn  warnings  of  the 
Father  of  his  Country,  who  in  yonder  tall  edifice  laid  his 
soldier  trappings  down.  Recalling  the  recent  outpouring 
of  the  people  to  swell  the  grand  pageant  in  New  York 
City,  commemorative  of  the  Centenary  of  Washington's 
Inauguration  on  the  30th  of  April,  1789,  we  are  forcibly 
reminded  of  the  former  event  here,  when  on  the  23rd  of 
December,  1783,  he  returned  his  Military  Commission 
into  the  hands  of  his  countrymen.  In  the  words  of  an 
English  poetess: — 

"  He  saved  his  land,  but  did  not  lay  his  soldier  trappings  down, 
To  change  them  for  a  regal  vest,  and  don  a  kingly  crown, 
Fame  was  too  earnest  in  her  joy — too  proud  of  such  a  son — 
To  let  a  robe  and  title  mask  her  noble  Washington." 

And  now  at  the  close  of  the  Centenary  of  St.  John's 
what  of  its  future  ?     It  is  not  the  part  of  wisdom  to  look 


123 


mournfully  into  the  mistakes  of  the  past  committed  not 
by,  but  against  the  College.  The  munificence  of  an  Anne 
Arundel  boy,  grown  to  a  merchant  prince  in  the  commer- 
cial metropolis  of  the  State,  sent  forth  in  that  metropolis 
scarce  more  than  a  decade  since,  the  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity, like  Pallas  from  the  brain  of  Jove,  full  armed  for 
its  work.  John  McDonogh  and  George  Peabody,  the  one 
a  native,  and  the  other  an  adopted  citizen  of  the  State  for 
many  years,  have  enriched  the  educational  forces  of  the 
people  by  monumental  endowments.  May  not  the  citizens 
of  Maryland,  through  their  representatives  in  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  in  conjunction  with  the  Visitors  and  Gov- 
ernors, now  wisely  seek  to  devise  plans  for  making  St. 
John's  absolutely  free  to  the  sons  of  all  residents  of  the 
State,  board  and  lodging  of  the  students — non-residents 
of  the  city — being  supplied  at  cost.  If  then  there  re- 
mained room  for  more  students  than  the  State  supplied, 
it  might  well  be  considered,  whether  it  would  not  be  good 
policy  to  invite  free,  students  from  without  the  State. 
The  invitation,  in  view  of  St.  John's  location,  might  well 
bear  the  words — "  Si  quaeris  peninsulam  amoenam  circum- 
spice' — the  motto  of  the  beautiful  State  on  the  borders 
of  Lake  Superior,  which  so  lavishly  endows  its  great  free 
University.  St.  John's  would  thus  ever  continue  on  in 
fulfilment  of  Maryland's  motto,  at'escite  et  multipUcamini, 
and  if  not  the  great  University  of  the  State^  it  would  be 
to  it  or  to  other  Universities  what  the  St.  John's  of  Ox- 
ford and  'the  St.  John's  of  Cambridge  are  to  those  great 
Universities.  Its  roll  of  students  must  then  of  necessity 
increase,  though,  within  limits,  the  cost  of  few  or  many 
scholars  would  be  the  same,  and  the  advantages  if  too  few 


124 


rather  than  too  many  scholars,  would  he  all  in  favor  of  the 
student's  more  thorough  instruction.  The  Oxford  cal- 
endar for  1888,  as  appears  by  Whitaker's  Almanac  for 
1889,  shows  hut  122  under-graduates  credited  to  St. 
John's  College,  and  the  average  of  the  twenty-one  col- 
leges (excluding  the  Halls),  is  125,  the  annual  income 
of  St.  John's  being  12,743  pounds  sterling,  which  is 
near  the  average  income  of  each  of  the  other  colleges. 
By  the  same  authority,  St.  John's  at  Cambridge  is 
credited  on  the  Cambridge  Calender  for  1888  with  290 
under-graduates,  the  average  of  the  seventeen  colleges 
of  the  University  showing  162,  and  St.  John's  gross  in- 
come being  42,174  pounds. 

The  College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  formerly  the 
New  York  Free  Academy,  educates  absolutely  free  and 
without  cost  for  tuition,  books,  or  use  of  apparatus,  more 
than  a  thousand  boys  ajid  youths,  within  the  city-walls  of 
a  single  building.  The  orderly  management,  the  minute- 
ness of  detail,  the  thoroughness  of  equipment  in  every 
Department,  from  the  classical  to  the  workshop,  reflect 
not  alone  credit  upon  the  President's  fatherly  and  dis- 
ciplinary care,  but  upon  the  faculty,  the  State  and  City 
for  furnishing  such  a  boon  to  many  fathers  and  mothers, 
as  well  as  to  their  sons.  The  good  and  useful  citizens 
which  this  institution  makes,  return,  in  the  production 
of  values,  hundreds  of  times  over,  all  that  it  costs  in  tax- 
ation for  their  instruction.  It  may  be  that  those  immedi- 
ately charged  "with  the  responsibility  of  the  supervision 
of  St.  John's,  legislative  and  visitorial,  might  derive  some 
light  on  State  and  municipal  management  of  educational 
institutions  by  a  study  of  the  financial  and  other  manage- 
ment of  this  College. 


12( 


The  record  of  St.  John's  has  now  been  recalled  from 
its  beginning.  May  its  record  continue  on  forever.  And 
may  its  alumni  never  cease  to  claim  as  of  old  and  as  of 
right,  entrance  into  that  communion  of  scholars  which 
cherishes  the  best  thoughts  of  all  time. 

Seek  30U  fellowship  in  temples 
Where  fair  learning  holds  the  key, 
Are  you  challenged  at  their  portals 
Ere  you  enter  with  the  free  ? 
Wave  proudly  but  this  legend — 
A  passport  it  shall  be, — 
"My  alma  mater  is  St.  John's, 
'Xeath  the  old  historic  tree." 

In  the  preparation  of  this  paper,  besides  the  authorities 
and  sources  of  information  named,  I  have  consulted  the 
"Annals  of  Annapolis,"  published  in  1841,  and  Riley's 
History  of  Annapolis,  published  in  1887,  but,  except  the 
Maryland  statutes  and  Reports,  I  have  been  unable,  for 
want  of  time,  to  consult  all  the  numerous  old  authorities 
cited  in  said  publications,  and  in  the  Rev.  Ethan  Allen's 
Notes,  bearing  upon  Maryland  History.  I  am  greatly 
indebted  to  Mr.  J.  Shaaff  Stockett,  M.  A.,  an  alumnus 
of  the  class  of  '44,  the  Official  Reporter  of  the  decisions 
of  the  Court  of  Appeals,  for.  a  collection  of  papers  con- 
taining data  of  great  assistance  to  me.  To  Principal 
Fell;  the  Hon.  Nicholas  Brewer,  Treasurer  of  the  Board 
of  Visitors  and  Governors;  Daniel  R.  Randall,  Esq.,  of 
Annapolis;  and  Mr.  Herbert  Noble,  of  the  graduating 
class,  I  am  much  indebted  for  data  and  courtesies  ex- 
tended.    I  must  also  acknowledge  obligations  to  other 


126 


friends  for  suggestions;  and  to  Gen,  Alexander  S.  Webb, 
President  of  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  for  data 
furnished  concerning  that  institution,  and  for  courtesies 
extended  in  furtherance  of  my  efforts  to  obtain  light  on 
my  subject. 

Pardon,  my  hearers,  this  attempt  at  authorship,  which, 
though  willing,  is  so  inadequate  to  the  obligations  rest- 
ing upon  me.  Were  the  ability  not  lacking,  the  time 
permissible  to  the  preparation  of  this  paper  has  been  too 
short  to  do  the  subject  justice.  Though  a  labor  of  love, 
my  sketch  may  be  redolent  of  the  shop — even  ^'sound- 
ing in  tort,"  as  the  lawyers  say,  in  abuse  of  your  patience. 
If  this  be  so,  forgive  the  wrong,  but  have  me  enjoined 
against  any  repetition  of  a  similar  imposition  upon  your 
kind  attention,  for  which  I  am  deeply  indebted  and  equally 
thankful.  But  if  this  sketch  of  our  Alma  Mater's  career 
shall  assist  ever  so  little  her  merits  to  disclose,  or  prove 
of  use  to  any  historian  worthy  of  so  noble  a  theme,  then 
indeed  will  my  labor  be  requited. 

To  the  young  gentlemen  of  the  graduating  class  who, 
ere  to-morrow's  sun  shall  set,  will  be  numbered  in  the 
Alumni  Association,  I  would  address  a  few  sentences, 
more  of  encouragement  than  advice.  A  surfeit  of  the 
latter  you  may  have,  but  it  will  not  put  old  heads  on 
young  shoulders.  On  this  point  I  am  old  enough  to  speak 
from  experience: — 

You  will  find  in  Bulwer's  ''Caxtoniana"  a  mine  of  great 
practical  advice,  expressed  in  language  of  his  own  rare 
beauty — in  which,  in  one  place,  he  says: — ''It  is  a  great 
thing,  said  Goethe,  to  have  something  in  common  with 
the  commonalty  of  men:"  and  this  in  addressing  dan- 


127 


dies,  (now  called  dudes) :  ''Yon  sloven,  thickshoed  and 
with  cravat  awry,  whose  mind,  as  he  hurries  by  the  bow- 
window  at  White's,  sows  each  fleeting  moment  with 
thoughts  which  grow,  not  blossoms  for  bouquets,  but 
corn-sheaves  for  garners,  will  before  he  is  forty,  be  far 
more  the  fashion  than  you.  He  is  commanding  the  time 
out  of  which  you  are  fading." 

While  recalling  the  class  motto  of  1880,  ''Nulla  dies 
sine  linea,"  do  not  forget  that  the  famous  painter  also 
said,  "ne  sutor  ultra  crepidam."  The  reason  of  this  re- 
proof and  that  of  the  maxim  "ne  quid  nimis  ' '  may  each  be 
considered  as  but  implications  of  that  formula  said  to  be 
of  such  "high  generality  " — the  law  of  von  Baer — "The 
heterogeneous  is  evolved  from  the  homogeneous  by  a 
gradual  process  of  change. "  Specialize  your  labor  there- 
fore, if  dependent  upon  it  for  support.  Concentrate  your 
energies,  let  your  culture  be  never  so  deep  or  broad. 
Choose  your  life-work,  if  possible,  in  that  vocation  to 
which  you  are  instinctively  led  by  a  taste  for  it.  The 
rewards  of  success  are  far  more  likely  to  come  under  such 
circumstances,  amid  the  changes  and  chances  of  this  life. 
Then  you  may  observe  the  maxim  age  quod  agis,  and  wisely 
improving  the  present,  each  of  you  may  "go  forth  to 
meet  the  shadowy  future  without  fear  and  with  a  manly 
heart."  But  remember  that,  as  the  poet  implored  th'e 
maiden, — 

"  Pausing  with  reluctant  feet, 
Wliere  the  brook  and  river  meet," 

to  bear  on  her  lips  the  smile  of  truth,  in  her  heart  the 
dew  of  youth, — so  your  Alma  Mater  invokes  you  to  a 


128 


similar  course  in  life.  You  may  not  attain  to  the  per- 
fection of  ideal  femininity;  for,  the  fibres  in  man's  struc- 
tural organization  are  of  grosser  grain  combined  into 
coarser  and  less  complex  muscular  and  nervous  tissues 
than  those  of  woman.  Nature  has  wrought  this  differ- 
ence, for  woman's  protection,  relying,  as  has  been  said, 
on  man's  magnanimity  not  to  prove  recreant  to  his  trust. 
I  can  yet  fully  sympathize  with  you  if  you  are  now 
ready  to  retort,  as  against  all  advisers,  in  the  words  in 
one  of  Bulwer's  minor  dramas: — 

"Oh,  how  little  these  middle-aged  formalist  schemers 
Know  of  us  the  bold  youngsters,  half  sages,  half  dreamers. 
Sages  half,  yes,  because  of  the  time  passing  on 
Part  and  parcel  are  we,  they  belong  to  time  gone. 
Dreamers  half,  yes,  because,  in  a  woman  s  fair  face 
We  imagine  the  heaven  they  seek  in  a  place." 

But  read  and  remember  what  follows: — 

"The  world's  most  royal  heritage  is  his — 
Who  most  enjoys,  most  loves,  and  most  forgives." 


The  President  then  introduced  the  Rev.  John  McDow- 
ell Leavitt,  D.  D.  of  Brooklyn,  New  York,  a  former 
Principal  of  St.  John's,  who  delivered  the  Centennial 
Ode,  written  by  him  for  the  occasion. 


12» 


^arjlanb. 


Oh  Maryland,  va.y  heart  returns  to  thee 
So  bright,  so  fair  from  mountain  to  the  sea  ! 
These  eyes  have  seen  thy  beauties  from  the  shore 
Where  meets  broad  Chesapeake  wild  ocean's  roar. 
To  where  thy  graceful  summits  lift  their  green, 
And  Oakland  sits  enthroned,  a  mountain-queen. 
O'er  many  lands  I've  roam'd  but  which  can  show 
Such  varied  charms  as  in  thy  daughters  glow  ? 
And  brave  and  courteous  sons,  thy  soil  now  grace. 
As  when  colonial  manners  ruled  the  place, 
And  Washington's  majestic  form  was  seen — 
Incarnate  Freedom,  moving  o'er  our  green. 
Beneath  yon  tree,  in  hoary  centuries  old, 
The  victor  stood  whom  ages  will  behold. 
Sublime  our  State  House  where,  his  sword  laid  down 
Proclaim' d  a  country  loved  more  than  a  crown ! 
2s  or  Maryland,  in  thee  from  mount  to  bay 
A  lovelier  spot  than  greets  our  eyes  to-day ! 
Yon  ivied  walls,  yon  poplar's  lofty  brow. 
Our  college  green  in  summer  sunlight  now. 
This  pillar'd  hall;  above,  the  time-worn  dome, 
Make  our  St.  John's  beloved  as  we  love  home. 
A  Hundred  Years  now  crown  its  honor'd  head ! 
A  Hundred  Years !  what  memories  from  the  dead ! 
What  fears,  what  hopes,  what  toils  have  marked  this  Scene ! 
What  names  we  love  are  in  our  hearts  kept  green ! 
McDowell  learn'd  here  first  the  mantle  wore ; 
Here  Pinkney,  Webster's  peer,  gain'd  classic  store; 
Here  caught  the  fire  of  eloquence  that  burn'd, 
And  law's  dry  rugged  truths  to  beauty  tum'd; 
Then  left  to  one  his  genius  and  his  name 
Beneath  whose  Bishop's  robe  glow'd  friendship's  flame, 
9 


130 


Whose  life  of  faith,  whose  word  of  power  and  love 

Approved  the  man  anointed  from  above. 

Where'er  our  flag  shall  float,  high  o'er  the  mast 

While  battle  thunders  'mid  the  ocean's  blast, 

Or,  if  on  land  its  brilliant  colors  fly 

O'er  patriot  warriors  taught  for  it  to  die. 

In  peace,  in  war,  above  the  sailor's  grave. 

Where'er  its  banner' d  glories  flash  and  wave. 

Immortal  there,  O  Key,  shall  live  thy  name. 

And  our  St.  John's,  thy  mother,  share  thy  fame. 

But  I  must  pause  since  thy  illustrious  men 

Need  not  the  pictures  of  a  poet's  pen; 

They  grace  the  Senate,  in  the  Pulpit  shine, 

Adorn  the  Bar,  and  lead  in  Mart  and  Mine, 

By  Science  cure,  or  ease  the  pangs  of  death. 

While  whispering  hope  with  love's  inspiring  breath. 

Always,  St.  John's,  they  grateful  turn  to  thee, 

As  turns  a  son  to  home  where'er  he  be. 

Such  sober  thoughts  we  leave  in  pause  awhile ; 

We  change  our  theme  and  dare  the  cynic's  smile. 

We  sing  of  Brass,  whose  glitter  on  man's  breast 

Makes  woman's  bosom  thrill  with  wild  unrest. 

And  hence  our  Navy,  I'm  in  whispers  told. 

With  tinsel  wins  those  hearts  more  prized  than  gold. 

Behind  her  fan  I  see  the  maiden  glance ; 

I  see  her  whirl,  clasp'd  in  the  dizzy  dance; 

She  reads  her  stars,  and  with  an  artless  joy 

An  Adm'r'l  weds,  forsehadow'd  in  a  boy, 

Long  o'er  Life's  seas  may  they  together  float! 

lie  wears  the  title ;  she  commands  the  boat ; 

He  sounds  the  trumpet;  she  tells  when  to  blow ; 

He  grasps  the  helm ;  she  bids  him  where  to  go. 

When  flies  the  ball  across  the  college  field. 

By  foot  or  bat,  St.  John's  will  never  yield ; 

She  takes  the  laurel  from  those  Naval  brows 

And  her  own  children  with  the  crown  endows. 


131 


Thus,  Maryland,  thou  dost  bring  down  the  pride 

Of  ocean- warriors  conquering  all  beside ; 

And  yet,  superior  thus  by  nature's  hand. 

Thou  has  made  void  an  end  by  nature  plann'd. 

And  dwarf  d  our  College,  as  we  soon  will  show ; 

Despoil'd  our  flower  of  its  centennial  glow. 

Our  proof  is  near  and  to  its  light  we  turn ; 

Hence  o'er  our  future  may  new  splendors  burn! 

Where'er  our  banner  streams  above  the  world, 

'Mid  what  wild  seas  or  wars  it  flies  unfurl'd, 

There  sailor-manhood,  taught  the  waves  to  rule, 

Repays  investment  in  our  Xaval  School. 

These  young  cadets  who  flirt  and  dance  and  joke 

Turn  heroes  'mid  red  battles'  flame  and  smoke. 

Fight  with  train' d  skill  and  if  they  fall  to  die 

In  triumph  smile  as  meet  our  stars  the  eye. 

How  grand  the  proof  on  far  Samoa's  shore 

When  burst  across  the  deep  that  tempest's  roar ! 

See  Mullan,  who.  to  save  his  ship  from  wreck. 

Dared  ocean's  tumbling  ruin  on  his  deck! 

Groans  the  Vandalia  in  a  death-dark  wave 

That  hurls  her  martyr-captain  to  his  grave  1 

Heroic  Farquhar  bids  our  banner  fly 

Out  in  the  storm  that  mingles  sea  and  sky. 

And,  as  the  maniac  lightnings  flame  and  glare. 

Triumphant  music  thrills  the  thundering  air ! 

Hark !  Cheers,  urge  on  brave  Britons  thro'  the  gloom 

Heard  o'er  the  whirlwind's  shriek,  the  billow's  boom  ! 

The  Trenton  and  Vandalia  crash  and  shock. 

And  then  with  arms  of  sisters  interlock. 

That  flag,  that  strain,  those  shouts  wake  life  again 

Where  mast  and  shroud  are  clutch'd  by  clinging  men. 

'Twas  thy  song's  music.  Key,  inspired  with  power 

When  ocean-demons  raged  and  ruled  the  hour. 

And  Maryland,  thy  spell  was  felt  e'en  there, 

Since  'twas  thy  son  with  hope  lit  that  despair. 


132 


Who  now  will  those  Samoans  dare  to  grind 

Braving  both  storm  and  wave  their  foes  to  find  ? 

On  breast  and  shoulder  those  they  clasp'd  and  bore 

Whose  scorn  and  bullets  they  had  felt  before. 

Samoa's  Isles,  o'er  you  our  Flag  shall  fly 

And  the  grim  tyrants  of  the  earth  defy ! 

Now  let  me  come  to  my  appointed  task. 

And  here  a  few  centennial  questions  ask ! 

Love  for  our  college  glows !     Why  then  so  poor  ? 

Say,  why  not  yet  her  name  and  work  secure? 

The  seed  was  dropped  two  centuries  ago : 

A  soil  so  rich  and  yet  a  growth  so  slow  ! 

In  dim  colonial  times  a  Hundred  Years 

'Mid  toil  and  battle,  poverty  and  tears, 

Had  ample  treasure  for  our  college  piled  ; 

Hope  waved  her  wings  and  o'er  our  future  smiled. 

The  people's  gifts  accepted  by  the  State 

A  promise  gave  of  glory,  bright  and  great. 

Yes,  Maryland,  thy  honor,  hand  and  name, 

Thy  seal,  thy  law,  thy  pledge,  thy  truth,  thy  fame. 

All  to  a  Trust  before  the  world  were  given ; 

And  to  St.  John's,  thy  child,  thou  bound  by  Heaven, 

Who  were  the  men  who  gave  their  work  and  gold  ? 

A  list  more  brilliant  where  can  earth  unfold  ? 

On  Freedom's  charter  read  their  names  in  light ! 

For  Freedom's  battles  they  left  here  to  fight ; 

By  pen  and  sword,  by  word  and  blood  they  show'd 

What  spark  immortaLin  their  bosoms  glowed. 

The  State  took  gifts  of  revolution-sires 

With  halos  crown' d  flash' d  back  from  war's  red  fires. 

A  few  years  pass  1    Lo  party  storms  rage  high  ! 

Wild  Passion  swept  with  clouds  our  country's  sky ! 

In  our  old  Hall,  for  which  I  love  to  speak, 

A  college  boy,  perhaps  in  college  freak, 

A  tempest  waked — a  word  of  his  hurl'd  o'er 

All  that  our  hero-fathers  did  before. 


133 


By  a  mere  lad  enraged  the  State  House  frown'd, 

And  struck  a  daughter  staggering  to  the  ground ; 

Annull'd  her  gifts  and  flung  her  on  the  wild, 

A  bleeding,  orphan'd,  lone  and  starvling  child. 

For  thirty  years  she  struggled  on  the  earth 

By  the  stern  mother  left  who  gave  her  birth, 

And  beggar'd  flrst,  was  forced  by  Want  to  sign 

A  compact  hard,  and  vested  rights  resign. 

The  deed  was  null  !    Never  can  mother  bring 

Her  flesh  to  pangs,  then  rob  the  helpless  thing. 

I^'o  !  Maryland  !  St.  John's  avoids  the  deed  ! 

To  that  mean  pact  St.  John's  here  "Xo"  doth  plead  ! 

Those  patriot-gifts,  with  interest,  all  are  ours ; 

From  THEM  the  grandeur  of  our  college  towers. 

We  claim  a  million  by  eternal  right ! 

A  MILLION  can  be  won  by  faith  and  fight; 

Xot  to  thy  courts,  but  people,  our  appeal ; 

Sure,  THEY,  the  wounds  their  servants  gave,  will  heal. 

Now  know  why  Yale  and  Harvard  in  the  race 

Have  left  St.  John's  to  creep  with  laggard  pace; 

Why  Princeton  and  Columbia  crowd  their  halls 

While  we  have  round  us  dim  and  time  stained  walls, 

Yet,  feel  like  heroes  with  a  battle-scar. 

Proud  of  the  wound  and  limp  of  noble  war. 

Yes,  Maryland,  we  come  before  thee  now 

Not  with  a  beggar's  whine  and  abject  brow    * 

For  the  sole  sum  that  thou  didst  then  withhold 

And  paltry  interest  paid  in  grudging  gold  ; 

We  stand  on  right ;  we  look  thee  in  the  face ; 

We  cry — "  Wipe  out  the  blot  of  this  disgrace !  " 

Lift  us  now  up  to  that  illustrious  height 

Where  we  had  shone  in  this  centennial  light ! 

See  the  cold  father  who  his  son  denies 

The  kindly  nurtures  which  love's  heart  supplies ! 

That  boy  to  manhood  grows,  marr'd  flesh  and  soul; 

The  stamp  forever  on  the  shrivell'd  scroll ; 


134 


No  gold  can  paint  the  cheek  with  blushing  health ; 

That  shrunken  form  beyond  the  power  of  wealth ; 

Thus  imbecill'd,  what  treasure  e'er  can  buy 

Strength  for  the  reason,  brilliance  for  the  eye? 

A  manhood's  blight  instead  of  manhood's  prime 

Is  on  that  father's  soul  a  cloud  and  crime. 

Say,  money  cannot  now  the  sin  repair, 

Shall  then  that  father  be  exempt  from  care  ? 

Do  nothing  since  he  cannot  do  the  whole. 

Or  mock  his  human  ruin  with  a  dole  ? 

No!   that  hard  father  shall  do  all  he  can, 

The  boy  he  blighted  comfort  in  the  man. 

Oh  Maryland,  these  simple  truths  apply  ! 

Soon  wall  and  tower  will  brighten  on  our  skj^ ; 

Soon  on  our  shelves  the  piling  volumes  grow  ; 

The  spoils  of  science  we'll  be  proud  to  show ; 

New  telescopes  across  the  stars  shall  sweep, 

New  worlds  shall  glitter  in  th'  aerial  deep. 

Our  honor'd  halls  shall  swarm  with  noble  youth 

Panting  to  drink  the  life  of  living  Truth ; 

Nor  Yale,  nor  Harvard,  shall  exceed  onr  fame, 

While  glory  brightens  round  St.  John's,  thy  name  I 

Why  should  our  youth  on  others  spend  their  gold  ? 

Why  bear  abroad  the  treasures  we  should  hold? 

Why  bloat  old  colleges  with  needless  wealth 

And  from  our  own  keep  back  the  bloom  of  health  ? 

Why  give  we  other  States  our  sons  to  gxiide, 

Who  trained  at  home  would  make  our  State  their  pride  ? 

Stop,  Maryland,  this  drain  of  thine  own  blood 

For  other  lives  in  one  centennial  flood  ! 

Sons  of  St.  John's  !     Your  Alma  Mater  cries  ! 

Kneel  at  her  altars !     Kneel  and  never  rise 

'Till  each  a  vow  has  burn'd  into  his  soul 

This  dark  centennial  cloud  away  to  roll ! 

And  you  ye  daughters  of  this  beauteous  place. 

Ye,  who  o'er  life  can  shed  such  light  of  grace 


135 


Give  us  your  smiles,  your  words  and  looks  of  cheer, 

And  brilliant  triumph  yet  awaits  us  here. 

Oh  Press,  for  mighty  aid  we  ask  thee  now, 

Fire  in  thy  glance  and  lightning  on  thy  brow  ! 

Thy  pens  of  flame  must  light  us  on  our  way ; 

Thy  spell  be  felt  for  us  from  peak  to  bay ! 

•The  Bar,  the  Pulpit  and  each  State  House  Hall, 

May  eloquence  of  truth  inspire  you  all ! 

Him  honor'd  at  our  helm  may  wisdom  guide. 

And  all  the  noble  helpers  at  his  side ! 

But  last  and  chief  our  Trustees  we  invoke 

By  all  their  sires  and  grandsires  did  and  spoke. 

Hark !  from  the  grave  the  voice  of  those  I  hear 

Who  left  this  work  for  an  immortal  sphere. 

Their  forms  I  see !  each  reverend  face  behold ! 

Back  from  the  past  its  shadows  are  unroll'd ! 

Your  fathers  cry,  all  eloquent  by  death ! 

The  sounds  I  catch  as  if  from  life's  last  breath ! 

"Sons,  at  these  altars  bend  in  covenant  now, 

Make  one  true,  strong,  and  all  uniting  vow. 

To  work  and  wait,  to  give  and  pray  and  fight 

'Till  Justice  crowns  St.  John's  with  her  own  right !" 


136 


At  the  close  of  the  Poem,  Mr,  Stockett  introduced  as 
the  Orator  before  the  Alumni,  the  Kev.  Leighton  Parks, 
M.  A.,  of  the  Class  of  '73,  Rector  of  Emmanuel  Church, 
Boston. 


®|e  Coming  Centurj. 


An  invitation  to  return  to  one's  Alma  Mater,  to  ad- 
dress the  Alumni,  could  be  received  only  with  feelings  of 
profound  gratitude  and  surprise.  Of  gratitude,  that  the 
mistakes  of  the  student  life  had  been  forgotten  ;  of  sur- 
prise that  I  should  have  been  chosen  from  the  great  com- 
pany of  loving  sons  to  speak  to  such  an  assembly  on  such 
an  occasion.  I  begin  without  an  apology.  The  invita- 
tion of  the  Alma  Mater  is  like  the  invitation  of  the 
Queen — a  command.  It  is  befitting  that  such  be  accepted 
without  comment  and  in  the  hope  that  the  duty  may  be 
faithfully  fulfilled. 

Were  the  occasion  a  less  momentous  one,  the  tempta- 
tion would  be  great  to  recall  the  days  that  are  past,  and 
to  ask  ourselves,  brethren  of  the  Alumni,  how  far  we  have 
fulfilled  the  expectations  of  our  friends  and  of  ourselves. 
But  if  we  did  would  we  not  be  led  to  say  with  St.  Paul, 
''Whether  there  be  prophecies  they  shall  fail;  whether 
there  be  tongues  they  shall  cease ;  whether  there  be  knowl- 
edge, it  shall  vanish  away."  The  prophecies  which  we 
made  of  one  another — of  the  great  deeds  some  were  to  do, 
of  the  great  books  others  were  to  write,  of  the  splendid 
reforms  others  were  to  work — they  have  failed.  The 
stream  of  eloquence  which  flowed  so  smoothly  in  debate. 


137 


we  thought  would  soon  widen  into  the  mighty  stream  of 
oratory.  It  has  ceased.  The  knowledge  which  we  were 
so  many  years  in  accumulating  has  almost  vanished — 
few  of  us  could  pass  to-day  the  entrance  examinations. 
But  there  is  one  thing  which  never  faileth — love.  Love 
for  the  Alma  Mater  has  drawn  us  hither  to-day.  Love 
for  one  another  inspires  all  our  greetings,  and  better 
than  all,  Love  of  the  Beautiful,  Philokalians,  and  Love 
of  Learning,  Philomatheans,  grows  deeper  and  stronger 
as  the  years  with  their  mysterious  experiences  roll  over 
us. 

Our  college  life  then  was  not  a  failure.  We  must 
measure  ourselves  neither  by  what  we  have  accomplished, 
nor  by  the  extent  of  our  reputations,  but  by  a  nobler 
and  higher  standard  which  measures  the  true  man. 

"Not  on  the  vulgar  mass 

Called  work  must  sentence  pass, 

****** 

But  all  the  world's  course  thumb 

And  finger  failed  to  plumb, 
So  passed  in  making  up  the  main  account; 

All  instincts  immature. 

All  purposes  unsure. 
That  weighed  not  as  his  work,  yet  swelled  the  man'samount: 

Thoughts  hardly  to  be  packed 

Into  a  narrow  act 
Fancies  that  broke  through  language  and  escaped; 

All  I  could  never  be. 

All  men  ignored  in  me, 

This,  I  was  worth  to  God."* 

•Browning's  Babbl  Ben  Ezra. 


138 


The  measure  of  that  worthiness  is  to  be  found  in  love. 
The  desire  for  a  pure  and  noble  ideal. 

The  only  question  then  which  we  have  a  right  to  put 
to  the  past  is,  what  have  you  done  to  develope  in  me  my 
proper  personality?  That  is  the  object  of  life.  If  we  can 
ever  be  right  in  assigning  a  final  cause  to  creation,  it  must 
be  when  we  say  that  it  was  that  each  individual  should 
be  partaker  of  the  Divine  nature.  That  is  possible  only 
when  the  individual  realizes  that  personality  which  is  the 
manifestation  of  God. 

There  are  two  forces  at  work  for  that  end.  The  one  is 
self  determinate  action  of  a  free  spirit  and  the  other 
the  reactive  influence  of  circumstances  amid  which  the 
individual  finds  himself.  The  individual  is  incapable  of 
realizing  his  personality  in  a  state  of  isolation.  He  at- 
tributes his  ideal  to  the  Nation,  and  the  Nation,  being 
the  embodiment  of  the  manifold  personality  of  the  indi- 
vidual members  which  compose  it,  possesses  power  and 
freedom,  wisdom  and  foresight  which  does  not  belong  to 
the  individual.  The  duty  of  the  Nation,  that  for  which 
it  exists,  that  which  leads  to  its  downfall  if  it  fail  in  its  ac- 
complishment, is  to  return  to  each  individual  the  larger 
personality  after  which  he  reaches  and  which  he  is  not 
able  to  attain  apart  from  the  life  of  the  Nation. 

The  relation  of  the  individual  to  the  Nation  is  like 
that  of  the  leaf  to  the  tree.  No  matter  how  great  the 
tree  becomes  it  can  always  be  traced  back  to  the  tender 
leaf  which  lay  curled  up  in  the  embryo  from  which 
it  sprang.  And  if  the  time  ever  comes  when  the  leaves 
have  no  opportunity  of  performing  their  function  the  tree 
dies.     The  tree  is  of  the  leaf;  it  is  by  the  leaf;  every 


139 


part,  gnarled  trunk  and  waving  branch  are  but  the  stem 
and  vein  of  the  leaf.  It  is /or  the  leaf,  for  flaming  calix 
and  luscious  fruit  are  but  modified  forms  of  the  leaf  itself 
which  could  never  have  become  such  a  wonder  and  bene- 
fit, in  a  state  of  isolation  and  which  the  tree  exists  simply 
to  perfect. 

When  then  we  turn  our  eyes  to  the  Coming  Century 
there  is  but  one  question  which  we  wish  to  put  to  it. 
What  will  you  do  for  Man?  And  it  answers  us,  look  to 
the  Nation  and  find  the  answer  there. 

I.  We  turn  to  the  Nation  first  in  its  political  aspect. 
What  will  the  Government  of  the  Twentieth  Century  do 
for  the  developement  of  the  Divine  Personality  in  man? 
What  do  we  want  it  to  do?  The  men  of  a  hundred  years 
ago,  who  laid  the  broad  and  deep  foundations  of  the  Gov- 
ernment under  which  we  live,  were  filled  with  the  love  of 
liberty,  no  matter  what  it  cost.  They  defined  Govern- 
ment as  that  which  was  to  exercise  the  least  possible  re- 
straint upon  the  individual,  and  then  only  when  his  acts 
were  found  to  be  injurious  to  the  well  being  of  others. 
The  belief  which  lay  back  of  all  their  theories  of  Govern- 
ment was  that  each  man  is  capable  of  indefinite  healthy 
developement,  if  only  he  be  allowed  free  scope. 

It  was  a  splendid  faith  in  man.  And  splendidly  has  it 
been  justified.  The  intense  interest  in  life  which  exists 
in  this  country  is  due  to  that  original  faith.  The  curi- 
osity of  Americans,  which  affords  so  much  amusement, 
is  only  a  crude  form  of  the  keen  interest  in  each  man's 
developement,  which  is  possible  only  in  a  society  in  which 
no  one  can  tell  what  will  be  the  outcome  of  the  individ- 
ual's experiences. 


140 


Where  there  is  a  Paternal  Government,  half  the  in- 
terest in  life  is  gone,  'because  there  is  a  definite  goal  to 
which  all  life  tends  by  the  determination  of  the  ruling 
power.  Who  cares  to  know  what  two  Eussian  serfs 
think?  If  you  know  what  one  has  accepted  as  the  ideal 
of  life,  you  have  the  philosophy  which  reigns  from  the 
Arctic  Ocean  to  the  Caspian  sea  ;  from  the  Ural  moun- 
tains to  Poland.  The  minds  of  two  Chinamen  are  no 
less  similar  than  their  featureless  faces. 

This  keen  interest  in  life  may  be  the  most  obvious  re- 
sult of  liberty  but  it  is  not  the  most  valuable.  Indepen- 
dence of  Grovernment  supervision  has  begotten  a  spirit  of 
self  reliance  which  prevents  panics  or  gloomy  forebod- 
ings. A  people  who  are  accustomed  to  depend  upon 
themselves  are  not  afraid  of  crises.  They  do  not  ask 
themselves  whether  some  external  power  will  be  able 
to  meet  the  emergency  ;  all  they  have  to  consider  is 
whether  they  and  their  neighbors  are  able  for  it.  That 
confidence  which  is  the  result  of  experience  leads  them 
to  believe  that  there  will  always  be  found  men  who  will 
be  equal  to  the  occasion.  And  that  faith  has  been  jus- 
tified. The  wonders  of  Aladdin's  Lamp  are  as  nothing 
to  the  changes  of  fortune  which  have  come  to  men  in 
this  country,  and  found  them  equal  to  the  new  occasion 
— the  son  of  the  Boston  tallow  chandler  at  the  Court  of 
France,  and  the  Illinois  backwoodsman  coping  with  the 
first  Diplomats  of  Europe,  will  occur  to  every  one  ;  and 
may  we  not  add  the  dignity  and  gracious  courtesy  of  the 
late  Mistress  of  the  White  House?  Well,  these  things  are 
possible  only  as  the  result  of  a  boundless  liberty  which 
trains  men  and  women  to  depend  upon  their  innate  sense 


141 


of  what  is  wise  and  true,  rather  than  to  be  trammelled 
by  traditional  rules  of  conduct  which  it  requires  a  life- 
time to  master  and  a  particular  caste  to  perpetuate. 

That  the  people  of  the  United  States  are,  as  a  whole, 
more  interested,  and  so  more  happy — more  self  reliant 
and  therefore  more  hopeful — more  capable,  and  therefore 
more  ready  to  meet  what  is  before  them,  than  any  nation 
of  the  world,  is  due  above  all  else  to  that  faith  in  man 
which  was  the  glory  of  our  fathers,  and  enabled  them  to 
found  a  Government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and 
for  the  people.  For  to  these  men  the  Nation  meant  the 
aggregate  of  the  individuals  who  compose  it — each  one 
of  those  individuals  they  believed  a  being  capable  of  in- 
definite perfectibility  ;  and  the  Government  was  neither 
the  Nation  nor  the  Nation's  Master,  but  the  Servant  ap- 
pointed by  the  people,  to  keep  order  and  prevent  the  en- 
croachment upon  the  rights  of  the  individual. 

A  Government  which  found  its  highest  honor  in  serv- 
ing the  people  and  leaving  the  individual  free  to  develope 
his  own  personality  according  to  the  possibility  of  his 
capacity,  was  the  ideal  of  the  founders  of  this  Govern- 
ment. 

That  the  times  have  greatly  changed  no  one  can  fail 
to  see.  The  whole  tendency  of  the  day  is  to  appeal  to 
the  Government  to  do  that  which  our  Fathers  never 
dreamed  of  as  being  in  its  province.  That  this  tendency 
is  likely  to  increase  in  the  Coming  Century,  I  can  not 
doubt — the  whole  drift  of  political  thought  in  Europe 
and  America  is  toward  some  form  of  Socialism.  Insti- 
tutions of  Charity  which  would  once  have  been  the  gift 
of  individuals  are  now  expected  from  the  town.     Local 


142 


laws  which  the  public  opinion  of  the  community  will  not 
enforce,  the  Legislators  are  petitioned  to  enact.  States 
are  not  ashamed  to  ask  aid  of  the  Greneral  Government, 
and  industries  which  would  die  a  natural  death  because 
planted  in  localities  where  nature  is  against  them,  look 
to  the  Government  to  tax  the  people  in  order  that  they 
may  violate  the  natural  law  of  existence.  The  fashion 
having  once  been  set,  has  been  followed  in  unexpected 
ways.  The  workman  is  demanding  that  our  once  hospi- 
table doors  be  closed  against  all  who  will  compete  with 
him.  In  other  words,  they  ask  that  a  Government  which 
was  established  to  cast  the  shield  of  its  protection  over 
all  who  sought  a  home  where  they  might  be  assured  of 
liberty,  and  a  fair  chance  to  show  what  was  in  them,  and 
enjoy  the  reward  of  their  labors,  shall  limit  that  protec- 
tion to  those  who  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  rush  in 
before  the  doors  were  closed.  This  is  not  the  j^lace,  nor 
am  I  the  person  to  discuss  the  economic  bearings  of  such 
questions.  I  only  ask  to  be  allowed  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  the  Coming  Century  has  grave  dan- 
gers— dangers  which  do  far  more  than  affect  our  economic 
relations  with  one  another  and  with  the  nations  of  the 
wo^ld.  These  dangers  affect  the  National  Character. 
We  are  in  danger  of  substituting  for  Republican  inde- 
pendence, with  its  buoyant  hopefulness,  its  youthful  ex- 
pectation and  its  noble  faith,  a  mendicancy  which  is  at 
once  the  root  and  the  fruit  of  a  Paternal  Government. 
Our  unexampled  material  prosperity  has  placed  before 
us  an  ideal  which  may  be  as  fatal  as  Midas'  touch.  The 
life  of  the  nation  may  perish  of  hunger  in  the  midst  of 
the  plenty  which  will  not  feed  it. 


143 


But  a  far  more  important  question  is,  what  can  be 
done  ?  I  answer,  that  the  need  of  this  day  and  country 
is  an  Aristocracy.  Not  of  birth — we  have  seen  what  that 
has  led  to  in  France.  Not  of  wealth — we  are  destined  to 
see  that  dissolve  in  England.  But  an  Aristocracy  of 
Character.  Whose  ranks  will  ever  be  replenished  by  the 
best  blood  in  the  Nation,  and  whose  voice  will  be  lifted 
up  with  power  to  guide  the  destinies  of  the  people.  The 
first  essential  of  such  an  Aristocracy  is  unselfishness. 
We  need  men  who  expect  nothing  from  the  government 
and  need  nothing.  Men  who  in  every  village  in  this 
land  will  raise  the  tone  of  the  community  and  recall  to 
the  people  the  fundamental  object  of  Government.  Let 
them  be  physicians  or  farmers,  jurists  or  teachers,  mer- 
chants or  writers — it  matters  not — only  let  them  be  men 
of  high  ideals  and  fearless  courage.  Their  first  work 
will  be  to  create  a  new  and  purer  atmosphere.  To  show 
to  a  people  feverish  for  wealth  and  ready  to  fall  a  prey 
to  the  charlatan,  the  power  and  glory  of  a  life  of  plain 
living  and  high  thinking. 

There  is  where  the  work  of  the  new  Aristocracy  would 
begin;  but  it  would  not  end  there.  I  know  that  the  cry 
'Hhe  gentleman  in  politics"  and  ''the  scholar  in  poli- 
tics "is  apt  to  provoke  a  smile.  It  is  said,  "we  have 
seen  such  but  they  produced  little  effect.  The  politician 
must  not  be  above  his  trade.  He  must  creep  through 
the  Saloon  and  shut  his  eyes  to  corruption  and  reward 
the  boys  when  he  wins.  The  gentlemen  and  th^  scholars 
had  better  stay  at  home."  That  there  is  truth  in  such 
saying  we  all  know.  But  why  is  the  path  to  political 
power  low  ?     It  is  because  the  desired  end  is  low.     If 


144 


the  object  of  Government  be  to  subsidize  monopolies, 
and  pension  the  slothful,  and  reward  the  corrupt,  of  course 
only  mean  and  low  men  can  succeed  in  the  low  means 
which  are  essential  for  success.  But  if  the  object  and 
end  of  Government  be  something  very  different,  if  the 
making  of  the  conditions  of  freedom  in  a  highly  com- 
plex and  widely  extended  society  be  the  end  of  Govern- 
ment then  there  is  ne6d  of  the  scholar  and  the  gentle- 
man. Surely  they  can  not  expect  to  succeed  simply 
because  they  are  learned  or  gentle.  They  must  have  the 
vocation,  they  must  be  in  the  highest  sense  '' available, " 
but  for  such  men  there  is  to-day  in  this  land  an  opportu- 
nity the  like  of  which  has  never  been  seen  before.  We 
may  for  a  moment  turn  to  our  books  in  disgust,  or  devote 
our  energies  to  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  but  the  say- 
ing of  Aristotle  remains  true  ''Man  is  by  nature  a  polit- 
ical being."  To  say  that  men  actuated  by  generous 
motives  and  filled  with  the  wisdom  which  comes  from 
the  study  of  the  Humanities  have  no  place  in  the  politi- 
cal life  of  this  country,  because  for  a  moment  the  rewards 
seem  to  be  for  the  corrupt,  is  as  wild  as  to  declare  that 
there  is  no  place  in  war  for  the  genius  of  Von  Moltke  or 
the  heroism  of  Lee,  because  amongst  cannibals  he  is  the 
successful  warrior  who  can  dash  out  the  most  brains 
and  most  greedily  drink  the  blood  of  the  slain. 

Just  a  Hundred  years  ago  has  been  called  the  critical 
Period  of  American  History.  What  period  is  not  criti- 
cal ?  That  crisis  had  hardly  passed  when  the  Nation 
had  to  decide  whether  the  plow  which  had  just  begun  to 
turn  the  rich  furrow  of  peace  should  be  laid  aside  to  res- 
cue the  sailor  from  England's  tyranny.      Scarcely  had 


145 


the  young  nation  begun  to  grow  before  the  hissings  of 
nullification  were  heard  in  the  land.  And  last  of  all 
came  the  appeal  to  arms.  We  have  never  been  with- 
out a  crisis.  But  what  has  brought  us  through?  It 
has  been  the  clear  vision  of  some  seer  who  has  revealed 
to  the  people  the  meaning  of  their  destiny,  and  roused 
them  to  the  defence  of  their  heritage.  The  stainless 
character  of  Washington  was  more  to  the  nation  than 
the  alliance  of  France.  The  profound  insight  of  Jef- 
ferson into  the  meaning  of  human  government;  the  in- 
domitable will  of  Jackson  which  saved  the  infant  Her- 
cules till  he  might  be  fit  to  undertake  his  heroic  labors; 
the  keen  American  common  sense  of  Lincoln,  which  like 
a  gleaming  axe,  split  to  flinders  the  sophistries  which 
would  have  fenced  in  the  nation — whose  magnanimous 
heart  would  have  bound  up  the  wounds  of  the  people, 
which  the  rapacious  camp  followers  had  torn  open  that 
they  might  rob  the  wounded  and  the  dying;  such  indi- 
viduals have  been  our  salvation  and  our  glory.  We  have 
had  many  crises,  but  in  every  one  there  has  come  a  man 
equal  to  the  occasion.  To-day  we  need  not  one  but  many. 
"We  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood  but  against 
spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places." 

When  we  were  boys  we  loved  to  discuss,  is  the  pen 
mighter  than  the  sword  ?  To-day  in  the  great  Agora  of 
life  the  question  to  be  decided  is,  is  the  corrupt  use  of 
money,  is  the  employment  of  the  Government  for  selfish 
purposes,  is  the  appeal  to  the  passions  of  European  igno- 
rance, mightier  than  the  virtue,  the  patriotism  and  the 
intelligence  of  those  whose  fathers  laid  the  broad  founda- 


10 


146 


tions  of  this  Grovernment  and  whose  brothers  died  to  de- 
fend it  ? 

I  can  not  doubt  what  the  issue  will  be.  Let  but  one 
champion  arise  filled  with  knowledge,  strong  in  the  awful 
reverence  of  God,  inspired  with  faith  in  man,  and  call  on 
the  people  to  realize  their  calling,  and  the  waters  of  patri- 
otism will  rush  forth  as  when  Moses  struck  the  rock  in 
the  wilderness.  The  people  want  to  do  right.  They  do 
wrong  when  some  devil  has  persuaded  them  that  the 
doing  of  right  is  hopeless.  The  need  of  the  day  is  a 
Prophet,  a  man  to  speak  for  God,  and  when  he  comes  the 
people  will  answer  him,  and  the  cloudy  pillar  will  lift, 
and  the  host  take  one  step  more  toward  the  promised 
land  of  individual  perfectibility. 

II.  If  the  need  of  the  day  is  of  a  wise  and  unselfish 
man  to  influence  our  political  life,  and  show  again  that  he 
that  would  be  great  must  serve,  no  less  is  there  need  of 
one  with  profound  insight  and  infinite  patience  to  disen- 
tangle the  snarl  of  our  industrial  and  social  life.  The 
youthful  hopefulness  of  the  beginning  of  the  Century  is 
in  strange  contrast  to  the  unrest  and  discontent  which 
envelope  us  to-day.  The  tenement  house  with  its  swarm- 
ing, filthy,  shameless  population  is  a  blot  upon  every  city 
in  the  land.  The  fearful  contrast  between  the  luxury  of 
the  rich  and  the  squalor  of  the  poor,  the  frantic  eflbrts 
of  the  laborer  to  better  his  condition,  the  strikes  which 
paralyze  the  commercial  life  of  the  city,  the  huge  com- 
binations of  Capital  which  prevent  competition,  and  are 
a  constant  menace  to  the  integrity  of  Legislators  if  not  to 
the  purity  of  the  judiciary — these  are  some  of  the  sombre 


147 


facts  which  confront  us  and  make  us  pause  in  our  centen- 
nial congratulations,  and  ask  ourselves  whether  the  hope- 
fulness of  our  fathers  was  more  than  the  childish  anti- 
cipation of  good  which  arises  from  ignorance  of  evil. 

I  believe  not.  I  believe  the  men  of  a  hundred  years 
ago  were  profound  philosophers  and  far  seeing  patriots  ; 
but  the  conditions  of  life  have  changed  to  an  extent  which 
it  was  imposible  for  human  foresight  to  anticipate.  The 
inroad  of  ignorance  is  a  serious  menace  to  a  Republic 
based  on  intelligence.  The  changed  character  of  our 
urban  population  offers  great  temptations  to  the  unscru- 
pulous politician.  The  selfish  display  of  luxury  by  a  bas- 
tard Aristocracy  inflames  the  passions  of  the  unprincipled. 
The  helplessness  of  the  individual  in  conflict  with  the 
trusts,  form  the  standing  argument  of  the  Socialist;  and 
the  pitiful  condition  of  the  poor  makes  the  cry  of  the  com- 
munist for  any  change,  which  even  for  a  moment  will  alle- 
viate human  suffering  find  an  echo  in  every  manly  heart. 

The  great  question  of  the  day  is  this:  Are  these  evils 
the  natural  result  of  the  form  of  society  which  our  fathers 
loved  ?  Is  the  liberty  upon  which  they  called  unequal  to 
the  task  of  Government,  and  is  the  equality  in  which  they 
believed  a  dream  which  vanishes  with  the  realities  of  prac- 
tical day  ?  Or,  have  the  conditions  so  changed  and  the 
evils  grown  so  intolerable  that  we  can  no  longer  wait  for 
the  slow  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  poor,  but 
must  apply  some  remedy  which  is  in  direct  opposition  to 
the  theories  of  society  which  the  wisest  men  have  held  ? 
To  answer  those  questions  we  must  find  the  causes  for  the 
inequalities  which  exist.     They  are  not  difficult  to  find, 


148 


if  only  a  man  is  willing  to  be  declared  heartless  because 
he  insists  upon  facts. 

I  believe  I  know  something  about  the  condition  of  the  poor 
in  this  country,  and  I  say  without  fear  of  contradiction, 
that  as  a  rule,  degrading  poverty,  unless  as  the  result  of 
intemperance,  is  unknown  amongst  Americans.  As  a 
rule  the  American  workman  can  take  care  of  himself  and 
his  family.  In  other  words,  and  it  is  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance to  bear  this  fact  in  mind,  the  conditions  of  our 
American  civilization  are  not  such  as  to  crush  into  poverty 
the  industrious,  the  virtuous,  and  the  intelligent.  These 
are  the  men  who  form  the  great  body  of  plain  people,  the 
very  back  bone  of  the  community.  We  still  have  a  great 
mass  of  men  and  women  in  a  dreadful  condition,  but 
there  is  no  question  that  a  very  large  part  of  this  poverty 
is  the  result  of  intemperance  and  kindred  vices.  But  the 
residuum  is  large  enough  to  be  appalling,  and  what  is 
worse  it  is  daily  increasing.  But  these  people  are  not  the 
outcome  of  Kepublican  civilization,  the  children  of  our 
public  Schools,  whose  fathers  spoke  in  the  Town  Meeting 
and  whose  mothers  exercised  their  souls  on  the  great 
problems  of  time  and  Eternity.  The  children  of  The  Old 
Town  Folks  are  not  in  degradation,  nor  are  the  descend- 
ants of  Cooper's  backwoodsmen  crushed  by  circumstance. 
No,  nor  as  a  rule,  the  offspring  of  Uncle  Remus.  They 
are  the  proletariat  of  Europe,  a  class  unknown  to  our 
Fathers.  They  have  swarmed  from  the  sewers  of  Paris, 
and  crawled  from  the  alleys  of  Naples ;  they  have  fled 
from  the  bogs  of  Ireland  and  burst  from  Russian  prisons ; 
they  escaped  from  the  iron  imperialism  of  Germany.  They 
are  ignorant,  untrained,  in  spiritual  darkness,  filled  with 


149 


the  hatred  of  Government  as  such,  for  they  have  never 
heard  of  a  Government  which  did  not  exist  to  crush  the 
poor;  they  find  themselves  suddenly  placed  in  the  midst 
of  a  highly  intelligent,  industrious,  law-abiding,  virtuous 
people,  and  they  are  unable  to  cope  with  them  in  the  race 
of  life.  Is  it  strange  that  it  should  be  so  ?  Would  it  not 
be  utterly  confounding  were  it  otherwise?  Let  us  think 
of  them  with  infinite  pity  for  they  have  been  brought  out 
of  lands  of  bondage  of  which  we  know  nothing.  Let  us 
strive  to  help  them,  filled  with  an  unconquerable  hope 
that  each  of  them  has  within  him  the  possibility  of  the 
Divine  Personality.  But,  when  we  are  told  that  our 
boasted  freedom  and  our  pretended  equality  have  produced 
the  beggar  and  the  thief,  the  anarchist  and  the  agitator, 
we  answer  no.  It  is  England's  misgovernment  of  Ireland, 
it  is  the  partition  of  Poland,  it  is  the  ignorance  of  Italy, 
it  is  the  vice  of  Paris,  it  is  the  tyranny  of  Germany,  it  is 
the  bloodhound  cruelty  of  Russia,  that  has  changed  the 
image  of  God  into  this  sorry  sight. 

No,  gentlemen,  let  us  beware  of  panics.  There  is  no, 
need  to  break  up  the  ship  because  we  find  that  we  have 
taken  on  passengers  with  fever.  There  is  only  need  that 
each  passenger  should  do  his  part  in  the  unexpected 
exigency.  If  the  history  of  this  country  teaches  us  any 
thing  it  is  that  the  pathway  from  degrading  poverty  lies 
through  intelligence,  industry  and  virtue  to-day  as  always. 
Once  awake  in  man  the  consciousness  of  his  dormant  per- 
sonality in  an  atmosphere  of  Freedom,  and  he  will  solve 
the  problem  of  life. 

But,  we  hear  it  answered,  and  not  by  the  enraged  Agi- 
tator, but  by  serious,  earnest,  pitiful,  intelligent  men 


150 


longing  for  the  dawning  of  a  better  day.  "  We  have  no 
freedom.  The  conditions  of  life  are  altogether  favorable 
to  the  rich  and  hostile  to  the  poor.  No  progress  is  pos- 
sible until  Government  assumes  the  charge  of  all  indus- 
tries and  distributes  the  fruits  equally  amongst  all  the 
people."  The  Political  economist  may  well  ask,  when 
such  a  scheme  is  proposed,  where  is  the  Aladdin's  lamp 
which  will  so  greatly  increase  the  effectiveness  of  indus- 
try as  to  produce  such  plenty  ?  But  I  waive  that  point 
and  turn  to  the  moral  bearing  of  Socialism.  If  we  find 
that  the  probity  of  the  politician  is  strained  in  the  attempt 
to  distribute  honestly  the  country  Post  Offices,  where  are 
we  to  find  men  who  could  be  entrusted  with  such  power 
as  the  Socialistic  schemes  propose  ?  Taking  human  na- 
ture as  it  is,  Socialism  would  open  a  door  to  rascality  such 
as  the  world  has  never  seen.  The  jobbery  under  Napo- 
leon III.  would  be  economical  compared  with  it,  and  the 
taxes  of  George  III.  right  in  principle  and  light  in  weight. 
If  we  wish  for  the  rule  of  a  Eehoboam,  let  us  give  up  all 
things  into  the  hands  of  a  Paternal  Government,  and  it 
will  say  to  us  "My  little  finger  shall  be  thicker  than  my 
father's  loins.  And  whereas  my  father  did  lade  you  with 
a  yoke,  I  will  add  to  your  j^oke:  My  father  hath  chastised 
you  with  whips,  but  I  will  chastise  you  with  scorpions." 
All  such  schemes,  no  matter  how  generous  may  be  the 
motives  which  actuate  their  promoters,  are  doomed  to 
failure,  for  they  are  essentially  unnatural  and  Unchristian. 
Unnatural,  because  nature  always  has  paid  and  always 
will  pay  large  wages  to  the  intelligent,  the  farseeing  and 
the  industrious.  Unchristian,  because  they  are  attempts 
to  produce  a  moral  change  by  material  rather  than  by 
spiritual  means. 


151 


The  difficulties  of  the  day  are  not  few,  but  let  us  beware 
lest  we  cast  away  that  which  has  brought  us  all  our  bless- 
ings. Whatsoever  is  lovely  and  honest  and  of  good  report 
in  our  American  civilization  to-day  is  the  fruit  of  a  splen- 
did Individualism.  Before  that,  as  represented  by  the 
New  England  farmer,  and  the  Virginia  rifleman,  the  com- 
pact and  well  organized  civilization  of  France  was  swept 
from  this  .Continent.  Before  it  again  the  armies  of  Eng- 
land fell.  It  was  that  which  made  Pickett's  charge  pos- 
sible; and  it  was  that  too  which  defended  Cemetery  Hill. 
A  plain  man  who  little  dreamed  that  he  was  a  hero  ex- 
pressed that  which  has  been  our  glory:  '^  I  stood,  he 
said,  by  the  wall  of  the  peach  orchard  at  Gettysburg,  and 
saw  Pickett's  men  sweep  across  the  plain.  I  said  no  army 
can  withstand  them,  but  when  they  drew  near,  I  said: 
'  My  God,  the  Union  depends  upon  me,  and  then  I  could 
have  lifted  twenty  ton  ! '  " 

Any  re-arrangement  of  the  elements  of  society  which 
has  some  other  aim  iti  view  than  the  ennobling  of  char- 
acter will  end  as  did  the  French  Revolution;  and  any 
attempt  to  improve  the  condition  of  mankind  which  does 
not  set  before  itself,  as  the  first  step,  an  appeal  to  what 
is  essentially  noble  in  Humanity  is  doomed  to  failure. 
From  that  step  it  would  inevitably  follow  that  there 
would  be  a  re-arrangement  of  society  to  express  more 
perfectly  the  better  ideal,  and  to  make  the  conditions  of 
life  more  favorable  for  its  continuance. 

Now,  if  we  are  not  mistaken  in  our  reading  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  world,  and  above  all,  of  the  history  of  the 
last  three  hundred  years,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  nobil- 
ity of  which  we  have  spoken  must  be  filled  with  faith  in 


152 


and  love  of  Democracy.  What  we  need  is  not  less  De- 
mocracy but  more  Democracy.  Democracy  has  pushed 
its  way  into  the  Court  room  and  insisted  that  not  only 
must  Justice's  eyes  be  blinded,  but  that  no  one  must 
whisper  to  her  whether  he  who  stands  at  the  bar  be  noble 
or  peasant.  Equal  justice  has  been  won  and  the  law  is  re- 
spected. Democracy  knocked  at  the  door  of  Parliament 
and  demanded  that  they  who  obeyed  the  laws  and  furn- 
ished the  means  of  existence  to  the  Government  should 
be  heard  in  the  making  of  the  laws.  So  we  have  politi- 
cal equality  and  with  it  peace.  Soon  Democracy  will 
speak  to  the  new  industrial  Aristocracy  and  insist  that 
in  some  way,  those  that  bear  the  burden  and  heat  of  the 
day  shall  have  a  share  in  the  industrial  life  different  from 
that  which  has  yet  been  granted  to  the  workingmen. 
But  the  new  step  onward  of  Democracy  must  be  taken 
by  itself.  It  can  not  be  lifted  into  the  promised  land  by 
any  act  of  Government,  it  must  pass  through  the  wilder- 
ness, but  in  time  it  will  arrive.  What  it  needs  to  day  is 
a  leader.     That  is  the  work  for  the  new  Aristocracy. 

What  we  need  is  better  men;  above  all  a  new  nobility, 
filled  with  the  spirit  of  Chivalry,  with  lives  devoted  not  to 
the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  but  to  the  discovery  of 
the  manger  of  Bethlehem  in  every  human  heart.  When 
that  comes  the  Holy  Grail  will  be  found,  and  when  men 
drink  of  it  as  brethren, — intemperance  will  flee  away,  and 
the  exactions  of  power  be  ashamed,  and  the  shameless 
luxury  of  our  bastard  Aristocracy  will  slink  away  as  did 
the  noisy  crew  when  the  sweet  lady  of  Milton's  Comus 
walked  in  their  midst  without  fear! 


153 


III.  Such  a  conception  of  individual  value  and  the 
strong  hope  of  the  improvement  of  society  through  the 
purifying  influence  of  an  awakened  Personality  is  impossi- 
ble apart  from  faith  in  the  Divine  Purpose,  belief  in  the 
infinite  perfectibility  of  man,  and  consciousness  of  the 
indwelling  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth.  In  other  words  Relig- 
ion is  the  first  essential  for  Democracy.  For,  Democracy 
is  like  a  brave  swimmer,  who  has  cast  off  all  human  life- 
preservers,  and  committed  himself  to  the  waves;  firm  in 
the  faith  in  the  buoyancy  of  the  waves,  the  vigor  of  his 
own  arm  and  the  reality  of  the  land  which  he  hopes  to 
reach. 

But  the  ecclesiastical  life  has  its  dangers  no  less  than 
the  political  and  the  social.  There  is  danger  lest  a  panic 
take  possession  of  men's  souls,  and  faith  be  divorced  from 
knowledge;  lest  the  test  of  any  advance  in  knowledge  be 
not  its  truth  but  its  safety.  It  is  the  spirit  of  fear  which 
leads  men  to  turn  to  the  Scribes,  who  stand  at  the  temple 
door,  turning  over  the  pages  of  the  past,  and  ask  them 
whether  the  new  truth  glowing  with  the  light  of  a  better 
day  can  safely  be  admitted  to  the  dim  religious  light  of 
the  past.  They  may  keep  it  out,  but  with  it  they  will 
keep  out  the  youth  and  glory  of  the  Nation.  There  is 
great  danger  lest  our  Sectarianism  dissipate  the  energy 
which  can  be  found  only  in  unity.  There  is  danger  lest, 
that  being  strongly  felt,  men  turn  in  despair  to  a  great 
and  splendid  foreign  organization  which  promises  truth 
but  at  the  cost  of  liberty. 

What  is  the  remedy?  It  is  here  as  elsewhere,  I  believe, 
in  a  glorified  individualism.  The  world  will  never  hear 
the  Truth  proclaimed  with  authority  till  it  comes  like 


154 


the  voice  of  many  waters,  till  it  break  upon  us  like  the 
sound  of  harpers  harping  on  their  harps.  The  harper 
touches  a  single  string  and  if  he  be  a  master  then  the 
note  is  true.  It  is  not  the  Truth,  yet  true.  The  truth  is 
heard  when  every  string  has  given  forth  its  true  note; 
then  in  the  great  symphony  the  spirit  of  humanity  will 
cast  its  crowns  before  the  Eternal  throne.  All  that  is  in 
the  future.  We  are  not  to  disregard  the  past  nor  the 
voice  of  the  past — to  do  so  is  to  produce  discord.  The 
past  has  struck  the  key  note,  and  we  must  listen  to  it. 
The  important  thing  for  every  man  is  not  to  have  the 
truth  but  to  be  true,  and  out  of  these  individual  utter- 
ances will  come  the  perfect  and  satisfying  harmony  of 
Humanity.  And  this  thought  lifts  Truth  out  of  the 
mystic  atmosphere  of  the  schools  and  brings  it  into  the 
clear  light  of  life.  Every  experience  that  comes  to  man 
is  the  touch  of  the  Divine  hand,  and  every  answer  to  such 
experience  is  doing  more  for  the  world  than  all  the  trea- 
tises on  philosophy  which  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

The  same  law  holds  in  the  life  of  religious  organiza- 
tions. From  the  beginning  there  have  been  two  religions 
in  Christendom,  the  one  a  religion  about  Jesus  and  the 
other  the  religion  of  Jesus — the  same  religion  which  He 
had.  It  is  the  former  which  persecutes ;  the  later  which 
conquers.  It  is  the  former  which  has  made  all  the  Sects 
warring  one  with  another;  it  is  the  latter  which  has  been 
the  joy  and  light  of  man.  The  religions  about  Jesus  can 
never  have  any  unity.  Each  sect  says,  let  us  have  union 
by  all  others  becoming  such  as  I  am.  The  unity  of  the 
other  exists  to-day  and  can  never  be  broken.  It  is  the 
great  company  of  faithful  people  found  in  every  sect  and 


155 


every  nation.  That  that  Unity  should  be  made  more 
effective  no  one  gainsays.  How  is  it  to  be  accomplished? 
By  recognizing  that  the  members  of  Christ's  Body  are 
not  organizations  of  men  for  the  perpetuation  of  a  dogma, 
or  the  preservation  of  an  order,  but  individuals  filled  with 
the  Spirit  of  God.  Paul  said  to  the  Corinthians:  Ye 
collectively  are  the  Temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  mem- 
bers in  'particular.  But  we  have  higher  authority  than 
Paul.  When  Jesus  had  been  rejected  by  the  Jewish 
Church  and  forsaken  by  the  Galilean  multitude,  He 
turned  to  his  disciples  and  said,  ''Whom  do  men  say  that 
I  am? ' '  What  is  the  popular  opinion  about  me?  It  made 
no  matter  what  it  was.  What  say  ye.  Peter  said,  "Thou 
art  the  Christ."  And  Jesus  said  on  thee  I  found  my 
Church.  The  Church  is  founded  on  individual  recogni- 
tion of  the  Divine  Man  and  stands  or  falls  according  as 
that  foundation  is  built  upon.  The  unity  of  the  man  con- 
sists not  in  the  juxtaposition  of  his  clothing  whether  the 
hat  be  a  mitre,  or  the  cloak  a  surplice,  or  the  shoes  the 
pilgrim's  sandals.  It  consists  in  the  living  co-operation 
of  the  members  of  his  body.  Now  the  sects  are  to  Christ 
what  the  clothes  are  to  the  man.  They  can  never  unite. 
The  members  of  Christ  whether  under  mitre,  surplice  or 
in  sandals,  are  the  individual  souls  for  which  he  died. 

Let  us  not  be  afraid  because  we  are  told  that  all  our 
woes  are  the  result  of  individualism :  only  substitute,  for 
that  much  abused  word,  Personality,  and  we  have  the  key 
to  the  questions  of  the  day  in  Politics,  Society  and  Reli- 
gion. 

Will  the  Coming  Century  advance  or  retrograde  ?  No 
man  can  tell;  it  all  depends  upon  this  one  question:  will 


156 


the  individual  more  and  more  realize  and  make  effective 
his  dormant  Personality.  The  schemes  of  dreamers  we 
need  not  consider;  the  advice  of  Paul  is  as  good  to-day  as 
when  first  given,  "  Take  heed  unto  thyself  and  to  the  doc- 
trine." 

And  where  my  friends  are  we  to  look  for  men  to  purify 
politics,  ennoble  society  and  revivify  the  church?  You 
anticipate  me  in  the  answer.  It  is  in  the  great  company  of 
scholars  who  fill  the  halls  of  our  colleges  and  universi- 
ties. 

The  relation  which  a  college  should  hold  to  the  State 
can  not  be  discussed  at  the  end  of  an  address  already  too 
long.  But  this  we  may  say,  that  if  the  object  of  the  State 
be  not  merely  protection  but  the  return  to  each  individ- 
ual of  that  nobler  personality  which  the  State  embodies, 
there  can  be  no  means  so  efficacious  for  that  work  as  edu- 
cation. 

Now  in  a  Democracy,  the  State  will  be  the  embodiment 
of  the  common  ideal.  So  the  State  provides  for  the  per- 
petuation of  that  ideal  in  the  common  schools.  But  if 
that  be  the  only  means  of  learning,  the  education  of 
the  children  of  the  Commonwealth  will  be  meagre  in- 
deed— it  will  never  rise  to  the  level  of  that  nobler  ideal 
which  has  been  revealed  to  a  chosen  few.  This  fact  has 
been  appreciated,  and  at  one  time  it  was  thought  that 
Sectarian  Colleges  would  meet  the  need  of  the  hour,  but 
more  and  more  it  is  being  felt  that  the  Sects  as  such,  are 
capable  of  but  limited  progress,  and  so  we  come  here  as 
elsewhere  to  see  that  the  salvation  of  the  college  itself 
must  be  in  the  individual. 


157 


Let  those  who  have  been  blessed  by  our  ancient  mother 
join  hands  to  enable  her  to  carry  out  the  ideal  which  she 
revealed  to  us,  untrammeled  by  politics  and  unbiased  by 
Sect  affiliations,  and  this  State  will  have  cause  to  bless 
us  who  have  been  blessed  by  it.  The  gift's  of  one  man 
have  made  Baltimore  the  seat  of  an  unique  and  splendid 
University,  where  men  may  investigate  to  the  farthest 
limits  of  the  human  reason  every  subject  which  is  of  im- 
portance to  the  race.  Such  an  establishment  however  has 
not  lessened  but  increased  the  value  of  a  college  in  which 
the  minds  of  boys  may  be  inspired  with  a  love  of  learning, 
and  trained  to  discern  facts.  Starting  on  the  broad  base 
of  the  common  school  system,  and  passing  through  the  col- 
lege curriculum  to  the  University,  Maryland  has  opened 
to  her  children  such  a  pathway  as  perhaps  can  not  be 
found  elsewhere  in  this  land.  It  will  be  a  fatal  thing  if 
for  want  of  means — and  that  means  for  want  of  interest — 
while  the  foundation  remains  and  the  capital  rich  with 
sculpture  is  ready  to  be  lifted  into  place,  it  is  found  that 
the  aspiring  shaft  which  should  unite  the  two  is  wanting 
to  the  temple  of  learning  in  this  Commonwealth. 

We  are  assembled  to  commemorate  the  founding  of  an 
institution  of  learning  older  than  our  Constitution,  not 
to  ask  that  some  new  work  should  be  begun.  We  have 
heard  the  roll  call  of  worthy  sons  who  have  been  born  of 
this  ancient  mother.  There  is  one  more  to  be  added  to 
them.  Let  us  not  forget,  lest  we  suppose  that  our  Alma 
Mater  is  stricken  with  age,  that  it  was  from  these  halls, 
aye  from  the  class  of  "73  that  he  went  forth  who  bore  the 
Nation's  flag  through  the  darkness  and  horror  of  the 
Arctic  night,  and  planted  it  in  the  dawn  of  a  new  day 


158 


farthest  North.  James  Booth  Lockwood  has  done  more 
for  his  day  and  generation  than  any  of  ns  will  ever  be 
permitted  to  do.  For  he  has  shown  to  a  people  prone  to 
worship  material  comfort,  and  to  a  generation  given  to 
the  applause  of  success,  that  patient  endurance  and 
heroic  courage,  and  self  sacrifice,  are  the  things  that 
make  life  worth  living.  Quod  homo  fecit  homo  faciat, 
was  the  motto  of  the  class  to  which  he  belonged.  He 
fulfilled  it.  Let  us  who  remain,  see  to  it  that  other 
children  have  the  same  opportunities  to  develope  a  noble 
character.  * 

Yet,  while  we  congratulate  ourselves  upon  beign  the 
children  of  this  honored  mother,  we  can  not  ignore  the 
fact  that  other  colleges  have  been  enabled,  through  the 
munificence  of  individuals,  to  leave  our  Alma  Mater  far 
behind  in  the  progress  of  learning.  This  ought  not  to 
be.  It  was  in  Maryland  that  the  first  step  was  taken 
toward  laying  the  foundations  of  this  liberal  government,  f 
May  it  be  her  part  to  lead  in  the  no  less  noble  work  of 
the  Coming  Century,  by  the  true  education  of  the  Per- 
sonality of  her  sons. 

Too  long,  0  Alma  Mater,  hast  thou  lain  at  the  Beau- 
tiful Gate  of  the  Temple.  Now,  in  the  Name  of  Jesus 
Christ — in  the  Name  of  that  Divine  Personality,  which 
was  conscious  that  it  was  the  Son  of  God  and  in  that  con- 
sciousness realized  its  freedom  and  its.  power — ^l-ise  up  and 

*  The  remains  of  Lieutenant  Lockwood  now  repose  In  the  Naval  Cemetery  over- 
looking the  Severn,  and  almost  within  the  shadow  of  his  Alma  Mater.    [Editor.] 

t  The  meeting  of  Commissioners  to  consider  the  Interest  of  the  different  States, 
met,  on  the  invitation  of  the  Maryland  members  of  the  Continental  Congress,  in 
Annapolis,  on  Sept.  11th,  1786.  This  meeting  was  the  first  of  several  which  preceded 
the  Convention  which  framed  the  Constitution.  See  The  Critical  Period  of  American 
History,  by  John  Fiske,  Boston,  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  1888,  p.  216. 


159 


walk !  In  the  inspiration  of  a  nobler  ideal  enter  through 
the  Beautiful  Gate  of  Learning  into  the  Temple  of  God, 
and  stop  not  till  thou  reach  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  bring 
forth  the  gifts  of  knowledge,  which  will  free  from  super- 
stition and  low  living;  the  lust  for  gold  and  the  thirst 
for  selfishness,  and  enrich  with  love  and  hope  and  an  un- 
shaken faith. 


At  the  close  of  the  Oration,  the  Apostolic  Benediction 
was  pronounced  by  the  Rev.  Cleland  K.  Nelson,  D.  D., 
a  former  Principal  of  St.  John's. 

The  audience  then  proceeded  across  the  Campus,  Dr. 
Fell,  with  Mrs.  Jackson,  the  wife  of  the  Governor  of 
Maryland,  leading  the  way,  to  the  Tree  which  had  been 
selected  to  commemorate  the  Centenary  of  St.  John's.. 
Standing  by  the  side  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  on  a  temporary 
platform,  Mr.  J.  Shaaff  Stockett,  of  the  Class  of  '44,  as 
President  of  the  Alumni  Association,  spoke  as  follows : 

We  are  about  to  crown  the  very  interesting  exercises 
in  which  we  have  to-day  been  engaged,  by  selecting  and 
setting  apart  this  *tree  as  a  Memorial,  to  recall  to  the 
sons  of  St.  John's,  for  ages  to  come,  this  our  first  Cen- 
tennial celebration.  And  if  it  prove  worthy  of  its  vener- 
able parent — the  Old  Poplar — that  has  weathered  the 
storms  of  centuries,  and  around  which  cluster  so  many 
agreeable  associations,  and  beneath  whose  wide  spread- 
ing branches,  many  of  us,  here  present,  have  gamboled 


•  The  Memorial  Tree  was  raised  from  seed  obtained  by  Mrs.  Nicholas  Brewer 
from  the  "Old  Poplar." 


160 


in  our  youth,  it  will  afford  a  grateful  shade  in  the  sum- 
mer's noontide,  and  perchance,  a  trysting  place  in  the 
evening  hour,  for  generations  yet  unborn. 

A  grander  and  more  enduring  monument,  however, 
than  this  Memorial  Tree,  may  be  wrought  out  in  the 
future,  if,  starting  with  to-day,  under  the  ennobling  in- 
spiration of  our  centennial  commemoration,  we,  the  sons 
and  friends  of  St.  John's,  resolve  to  labor  in  our  respec- 
tive positions,  and  to  the  full  measure  of  our  ability,  to 
make  this,  now  venerable  Institution  of  learning,  a  true 
fountain  of  knowledge,  from  whence  shall  issue  a  rich 
stream,  widening  and  deepening  as  it  flows,  fertilizing 
the  arid  wastes  of  ignorance,  and  yielding  an  abundant 
harvest  of  noble  men,  who  by  their  high  culture,  their 
varied  attainments,  by  a  true  and  lofty  manhood,  shall 
exercise  a  large  and  controlling  influence  for  good,  every- 
where. I  may  not,  however,  enlarge  upon  this  theme, 
here  and  now.     I  hasten  to  the  close. 

Mrs.  Jackson,  the  wife  of  the  G-overnor  of  Maryland, 
has  kindly  consented  to  participate  in  this  ceremony  of 
setting  apart  our  Memorial  Tree.  A  lady,  who  has  com- 
mended herself  to  so  many  of  the  citizens  of  Annapolis, 
as  well  as  to  others,  by  the  grace  and  courtesy  with 
which  she  has  oft  dispensed  the  liberal  hospitality  of 
the  Executive  Mansion,  needs  no  formal  introduction 
from  me.  She  is  no  stranger  to  St.  John's  Boys.  Nor 
are  they  wanting  in  appreciation  of  her  friendly  interest 
in  their  behalf.  The  Collegian — a  member  of  the  grad- 
uating class  of  this  year — who,  in  the  athletic  sports  of 
a  year  ago,  bore  off  the  prize  her  hand  bestowed,  would, 
I  am  quite  sure,  give  her  his  hearty  support  for  any 


161 


office,  to  which,  in  the  new  order  of  things — sometimes 
foreshadowed — she  might  aspire.  And  in  such  event  I 
make  bold  to  say,  we  all,  "with  like  acclaim"  would 
shout  the  Jackson  name. 

At  the  close  of  these  remarks.  Principal  Fell  presented 
to  Mrs.  Jackson  a  trowel  filled  with  earth,  and  deco- 
rated with  the  College  Colors — Orange  and  Black.  Mrs. 
Jackson  sprinkled  the  earth  around  the  tree,  at  the  same 
time  giving  expression  to  the  hope  that  it  might  long 
continue  a  memorial  of  the  day. 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  ceremony,  a  choral  was 
sung,  and  amid  the  hearty  cheers  of  the  students,  and 
the  College  yell,  the  large  assemblage  dispersed. 


11 


mmm  Plating  at  i\t  %lmml 


In  the  afternoon,  the  Alumni  Association  held  a  busi- 
ness meeting  beneath  the  marquee.  The  meeting  was 
called  to  order  by  the  President.  The  proceedings  of 
the  last  meeting  were  read  by  the  Secretary,  James  M. 
Munroe,  and,  after  being  corrected,  were  adopted. 

On  motion  of  Frederick  W.  Brune,  the  preparation  of 
a  Memorial  Volume  of  the  Centennial  Proceedings,  was 
entrusted  to  the  Executive  Committee;  and  on  motion 
of  Henry  D.  Harlan,  a  Committee  of  two  was  appointed 
to  proceed  immediately  to  procure  subscriptions  from  the 
Alumni  present  to  meet  the  expense  of  publishing  such 
volume.  Henry  D.  Harlan  and  Frederick  W.  Brune 
were  appointed  the  Committee,  and  they  proceeded  forth- 
with to  the  discharge  of  the  duty  assigned  them.  They 
presently  reported  that  the  sum  of  $312  had  been  sub- 
scribed, and  that  an  additional  sum  of  $100  had  been 
guaranteed  to  supply  any  contingent  deficiency. 

After  other  proceedings,  the  following  persons  were 
elected  Officers  of  the  Association  for  the  ensuing  year: 


163 

President. 
J.  Shaaff  Stockett, 

Vice-Presidents. 

Nicholas  Walter  Dixon, 
John  Sluyter  Wirt. 

Secretary. 
'  James  M.  Munroe. 

Treasurer. 
Louis  Dorsey  Gassaway. 

Executive  Committee. 

Henry  David  Harlan, 
Louis  Dorsey  Gassaway, 
James  Harwood  Iglehart, 
Hugh  Nelson, 
Daniel  R.  Randall. 

Historiographer. 
Samuel  Garner. 

The  Association  then  adjourned. 


€\t  '^Imm  ^anqiid* 


In  the  evening  in  McDowell  Hall,  at  tables  arranged 
somewhat  in  the  shape  of  a  horseshoe,  and  tastefully 
decorated  with  flowers,  nearly  a  hundred  persons  were 
gathered  to  take  part  in  the  good  cheer  provided  by  the 
Alumni  Association  of  St.  John's.  Kepresentatives  of 
classes  extending  over  half  a  century,  were  assembled 
in  loyal  friendship  to  recall  the  memories  of  *the  past, 
and  to  pledge  anew  their  devotion  to  their  Alma  Mater, 

Mr.  J.  Shaaff  Stockett,  President  of  the  Alumni  Asso- 
ciation, presided  at  the  festal  board,  with  Dr.  Nelson  on 
his  right,  and  Dr.  Leavitt  on  his  left.  The  following 
persons  were  present  as  guests  of  the  Association: 

Kev.  Cleland  K.  Nelson,  D.  D. 
Kev.  John  McDowell  Leavitt,  D.  D. 
Thomas  Fell,  LL.  D.,  Principal  of  St.  John's  College. 
Captain  William  T.  Sampson,  Superintendent  of  the 
United  States  Naval  Academy. 

And  the  Class  that  was  to  graduate  on  the  morrow, 
namely: 


165 

Lemuel  S.  Blades, 
Thomas  L,  Brewer, 
Charles  G.  Edwards, 
Charles  H.  Grace, 
Nicholas  H.  Green, 
Albert  H.  Hopkins, 
William  G.  T.  Neale, 
Herbert  Noble, 
Edwin  D.  Pusey, 
Charles  H.  Schoff, 
John  Gibson  Tilton, 
William  E.  Trenchard. 

At  the  close  of  the  Banquet,  Mr.  Stockett  arose,  and 
after  tendering  a  cordial  welcome  to  his  Brother  Alumni, 
as  also  to  those  not  of  the  same  Academic  household 
present  as  guests  of  the  Association,  and  who  by  their 
presence  added  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  feast,  announced 
the  following  toasts: 

St.  John's  College — An  institution  of  learning,  that 
may  with  a  mother's  pride,  point  to  those  whom  she  has 
nurtured,  and  sent  forth  well  equipped  for  the  battle  of 
life,  and  say  "these  are  my  jewels."  This  was  responded 
to  by  Mr.  Nicholas  Brewer. 

The  Principal  of  St.  John's — A  gentlemen  who  by  his 
scholarship,  and  wise  administrative  capacity,  aided  by 
the  hearty  co-operation  of  his  colleagues,  has  advanced 
St.  John's  to  a  degree  of  popularity  and  usefulness  that 
gives  assured  promise  of  a  bright  future.  This  was 
responded  to  by  Dr.  Fell. 

A  Former  Principal  of  St.  John's — Who  on  re-visiting 
the  scenes  of  his  labors  and  work,  has  brought  as  a 


166 


tribute  to  the  centennial  festival,  a  Poem  abounding  in 
thought,  stirring  in  sentiment,  and  clothed  in  language 
chaste  and  felicitous.  Dr.  Leavitt  responded  to  this 
toast. 

The  Faculty  of  St.  John's — A  band  of  competent  and 
faithful  instructors,  who  discharge  the  duties  of  their 
respective  positions  with  high  credit  to  themselves,  with 
great  benefit  to  the  students,  and  to  the  honor  of  the 
College.  This  was  responded  to  by  Professor  Charles 
W.  Reid,  M.  A.,  Ph.  D. 

Our  Alma  Mater — Weakened  by  many  conflicts  in  the 
past,  and  sorely  tried  by  neglect,  she  now  stands  forth 
encouraged  and  stimulated  by  her  work  already  accom- 
plished, resolute  to  achieve  greater  and  more  brilliant 
results  in  the  future.  Response  was  made  to  this  toast 
by  Dr.  Abram  Claude,  Mayor  of  Annapolis,  of  the  Class 
of  '35. 

The  Old  Poplar  Tree — "The  groves  were  God's  first 
temples,"  and  this  stately  pillar  of  great  Nature's 
Church,  remains  the  only  witness  of  the  birth  and 
growth  of  our  time-honored  Institution.  Responded  to 
by  the  Rev.  Vaughan  S.  Collins. 

Our  New  Members — May  you  "leave  behind  you  foot- 
prints on  the  sands  of  time."  Mr.  Nicholas  H.  Grreen 
of  the  Graduating  Class,  responded  to  this  toast. 

Mr.  Frederick  Ernory — An  alumnus  whose  chaste  and 
polished  address  before  the  Philokalian  Society,  of  which 
he  is  a  member,  aptly  illustrated  the  influence  of  the 
Love  of  the  Beautiful.  This  was  acknowledged  by  Mr. 
Emory.  . 


167 


Rev.  Leighton  Parks — Whose  eloquent  and  philosophic 
address  to-day,  commanded  the  admiration  of  his  audi- 
tors, and  enlarged  the  reputation  of  his  Alma  Mater. 
Kesponded  to  by  Mr.  Parks. 

Mr.  Philip  R.  Voorhees — An  alumnus,  to  whom  St. 
John's  cheerfully  acknowledges  her  indebtedness  for  his 
accurate,  comprehensive  and  valuable  historical  sketch 
of  the  College,  delivered  at  its  Centennial  Celebration. 
This  toast  was  responded  to  by  Mr.  Voorhees. 

Professor  Samuel  Gamer  of  the  United  States  Naval 
Academy — A  graduate  of  St.  John's  devoted  to  the  pro- 
fession of  teaching,  the  foundation  for  which  was  laid 
at  his  Alma  Mater.     Responded  to  by  Professor  Garner. 

During  the  evening  the  following  was  sung: 


For  the  Reunion  of  the  Alumni. 


Air: — Maryland,  My  Maryland. 


To  thee  we  come  from  far  and  near, 

Alma  Mater,  bearing 
Each  his  gifts,  to  lay  them  here, 

Each  thine  honors  sharing. 
At  thy  feet  once  more  we  sit. 

Find,  each  year  returning, 
The  torch  at  which  our  lamps  we  lit 

Still  serenely  burning. 


168 

Afar  we  see  thy  beacon  light, 

Hear  abroad  thy  praises; 
Oh,  feed  that  holy  flame  aright. 

Till  none  more  brightly  blazes. 
We,  enkindling  here  anew 

Light  of  thy  bestowing. 
Bear  us  as  thy  servants  true 

On  thine  errands  going. 

Fill  us  with  the  highest  things, 

O  benignant  mother, 
All  that  lifts  man,  all  that  brings 

Brother  near  to  brother. 
Spread  the  truth  that  maketh  free, 

Night  to  daylight  turning  ; 
Let  the  world  receive  from  thee 

Noblest  fruits  of  learning. 

Now,  in  thy  memory-haunted  hall, 

Alma  Mater,  meeting 
On  thy  Centennial,  one  and  all. 

We  offer  thee  our  greeting. 
Oh,  may  thy  life  for  ages  run. 

And  show  the  path  where  virtue  leads, 
A  beacon-light,  a  glorious  sun, 

A  fruitful  source  of  noble  deeds  I 

Another  day  had  entered  on  its  course  before  the  Festal 
Board  was  deserted,  and  the  Alumni  of  St.  John's 
separated,  carrying  with  them  a  lively  remembrance  of 
the  commemoration  of  the  First  Centenary  of  their 
Alma  Mater. 


169 


Itamts 


OF 


Graduates  and  others,  present  at  the  Alumni  Banquet. 

Arms,  Francis  Thornton 

Basil,  Jr.,  Joseph  S.  M. 

Blades,  Lemuel  S, 

Boswell,  H.  Heber 

Bowie,  Kohert 

Brewer,  Charles,  M.  D. 

Brewer,  Nicholas,  M.  A. 

Brewer,  Jr.,  Nicholas,  B.  A. 

Brewer,  Thomas  Leverett 

Brooks,  Nathan  C,  M.  A. 

Brown,  Robert  Riddell,  M.  A.,  LL.  B. 

Brune,  Frederick  W.,  B.  A. 

Brune,  Thomas  Barton,  M.  A.,  M.  D. 

Chapman,  Marshall,  B.  A. 

Claude,  Abram,  M.  A.,  M.  D. 

Claude  of  A.,  Dennis 

Claude,  Gordon  H, 

Collins,  Vaughan  S.,  M.  A. 

Crabbe,  Walter  R.,  B.  A. 

Daley,  Charles  F. 

Dawkins,  W.  J.,  M.  A. 

Dixon,  Nicholas  Walter,  B.  A. 

Dubois,  Charles  A. 


170 

Edwards,  Charles  G. 

Emory,  Frederick 

Fell,  Thomas,  LL.  D. 

Frick,  George  A.,  B.  A, 

Garner,  Samuel,  B.  A.,  Ph.  D. 

Gassaway,  Louis  Dorsey 

Gassaway,  Louis  G.,  B.  A. 

Grace,  Charles  H. 

Greene,  James  B. 

Green,  Nicholas  Harwood 

Green,  Jr.,  Richard  H. 

Green,  Thomas  Kent 

Griffith,  H.  L. 

Hammond,  Edward 

Harlan,  Henry  David,  M.  A. 

Harlan,  William  H.,  B.  A. 

Harlan,  W.  Beatty,  M.  A. 

Harter,  George  A.,  B.  A. 

Hicks,  Thomas  H.,  B.  A. 

Hopkins,  Albert  Hersey 

Hutton,  Orlando,  D.  D. 

Iglehart,  James  Davidson,  B.  A.,  M.  D. 

Iglehart,  James  Harwood,  LL.  B. 

Leavitt,  John  McDowell,  D.  D. 

Magruder,  Jr.,  John  R. 

Marchand,  George  E. 

Mullan,  John,  M.  A. 

Munroe,  Frank  A. 

Munroe,  James  M.,  B.  A.,  LL.  B. 

Murray,  James  D. 


171 

Murray,  Jr.,  James  D.,  B.  A.,  LL.  B. 
Neale,  William  G.  T. 
Nelson,  Cleland  K.,  D.  D. 
Nelson,  Hugh,  M.  A. 
Noble,  Herbert 
Parks,  Leighton,  M.  A, 
Pusey,  Edwin  D. 
Quynn,  H.  H. 
Randall,  Blanchard,  B.  A. 
Randall,  Burton  A.,  M.  A.,  M.  D. 
Randall,  Daniel  R.,  B.  A.,  Ph.  D. 
Randall,  John  Wirt 
Randall,  Wyatt  W.,  B.  A. 
Ray,  John  G.,  B.  A. 
Reid,  Charles  W.,  M.  A.,  Ph.  D. 
Ridout,  John,  B.  A. 
Ridout,  William  G.,  M.  A.,  M.  D. 
Roberts,  G.  C. 

Sampson,  Captain  William  T.,  Superin- 
tendent U.  S.  Naval  Academy. 
Sasscer,  Frederick,  M.  A. 
Schoff,  Charles  H. 
Slade,  H.  M 

Stockett,  Frank.  H.,  M.  A. 
Stockett,  Jr.,  Frank.  H. 
Stockett,  John  Shaaff,  M.  A. 
Stockett,  Thomas  R.,  M.  A. 
Thompson,  James  Guy 
Tilton,  John  Gibson 
Trenchard,  William  E. 


.      172' 

Tuck,  Philemon  H.,  M.  A. 
Voorhees,  Philip  K.,  M.  A. 
Wathen,  F.  Eugene,  B.  A. 
Wilmer,  Joseph  R.,  B.  A. 
Wilson,  J.  S. 
Wirt,  John  Sluyter,  B.  A. 


CwiMtncfment  Jag. 


Thursday,  27th  June,  1889. 


After  the  usual  exercises  the  following  Degrees  were 
conferred : 


§atp0r  at  grti 

Charles  H.  Grace,  Bozman,  Md. 
Nicholas  Harwood  Green,  Annapolis,  Md. 
Albert  Hersey  Hopkins,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Herbert  Noble,  Port  Deposit,  Md. 
Edwin  D.  Pusey,  Princess  Anne,  Md. 
William  E.  Trenchard,  Church  Hill,  Md. 

^ul^tiax  of  ^drnct 

Lemuel  S.  Blades,  Bishopville,  Md. 
Thomas  Leverett  Brewer,  Annapolis,  Md. 
Charles  G.  Edwards,  Baltimore,  Md. 
John  Gibson  Tilton,  Norfolk,  Va. 


174 


§a4elor  of  fitters. 

William  G.  T.  Neale,  Upper  Marlboro',  Md. 
Charles  H.  Schofp,  York,  Pa, 
John  Gibson  Tilton,  Norfolk,  Va. 


Other  Degrees  were  conferred  as  follows  : 

lla|attital  Engineer. 

John  H.   Baker,  Assistant  Engineer,  U,   S.  Navy, 
Washington,  D.   C. 

Pstfr  of  Jirts. 

James  Davidson  Iglbhart,  Class  '72,  Baltimore,  Md. 
John  Sluyter  Wirt,  Class  '72,  Elkton,  Md. 
Nicholas  Walter  Dixon,  Class  '77,  Crisfield,  Md. 
Louis  DoRSEY  Gassaway,  Class  '81,  Annapolis,  Md. 
Grafton  J.  Munroe,  Class  '82,  Springfield,  111. 
Charles  Brewer,  Class  '85,  Annapolis,  Md, 
Jacob  Grape,  Jr.,  Class  '86,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Will  Bush  Shober,  Class  '86,  Cumberland,  Md. 
Clinton  T.  Wyatt,  Class  '86,  Goldsborough,  Md. 


175 


Itaster  0f  Jirts. 

Egbert  Brooke  Dashiell,  Ensign,  U.  S.  Navy, 
Annapolis,  Md. 

§atiax  at  iibinitg. 

Eev.  Kandolph  W.  Lowrie,  Bennings,  D.  C. 
*Kev.  William  Scott  Southgate,  Annapolis,  Md. 

^attax  flf  ^mt 

Rev.  William  C.  Winslow,   D.  D.,   S.  T.  D.,   Ph.  D., 
L.  H.  D.,  LL.  D.,  D.  C.  L.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Jnttflr  d  fates. 

Rev.  John  McDowell  Leavitt,  D.  D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

§attax  at  fPoso^te- 

Thomas  Fell,  LL.  D.,  Principal  of  St.  John's  College, 
Annapolis,  Md. 


♦The  like  Degree  was  conferred  on  Mr.  Southgate  on  the  same  day,  by  his  Alma 
Mater,  Bowdoin  College. 


.\y 


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